Von Natur-Septimen, fliegenden Bananen und dem Streit um die 12 – oder: Was ist ein Mikroton?

The content on this page was translated automatically.

Subject according curriculum

Analysis, Music Theory Seminar

Teachers

Prof. Sebastian Sprenger

Scope

Thursday, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Start date: October 8, 2026

Room

BP 201

Duration

1.5 Semesterwochenstunden

Description

In common parlance, a “microtone” is a note that—to put it simply—cannot be played on the piano because it falls outside the grid of a tuning system that divides the octave into twelve equal semitones.
As recently as 50 years ago, the Austrian violinist Rudolf Kolisch viewed this tuning system as the necessary prerequisite for all musical progress and railed against the “reactionary ideology” of the “string sect,” which did not accept this prerequisite but instead insisted on “pure intonation” (“just intonation”), based on small integer frequency ratios. Admittedly, as early as 1949, the American Harry Partch had developed a scale that—based on what Kolisch viewed as “reactionary” just intonation—divided the octave into 43 significantly finer, though unequal, intervals.
The debate over the optimal interval ratios itself is, of course, much older and dates back at least to ancient China and Greece. Nevertheless, the names Kolisch and Partch may serve here as representatives of two different approaches to the construction of tonal systems, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries: On the one hand, the idea of “equal temperament,” i.e., the division of the octave—and, less commonly, other intervals—into a varying number of equal steps, resulting, for example, in thirds, fifths, or even twelfths; on the other hand, the orientation toward the “pure,” integer intervals of the overtone series. Both principles can be realized in their purest form or combined with one another.
An interesting development of the past decade has been the emergence of a microtonal scene within rock and jazz music; prominent examples here include the British vocal acrobat Jacob Collier and the Canadian duo “Angine de Poitrine,” which has enjoyed great success in recent years. The growing presence of various forms of Turkish or Arabic popular music in “Western” countries—just this summer, for example, the Neuköllner Oper dedicated a production to the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthuum —may spark curiosity about certain tonal nuances hidden among the piano’s twelve semitones, as well as an awareness of the relativity of what is heard and understood as a “microtone” within a given frame of reference.
This seminar aims to introduce participants to the history and fundamentals of various tonal systems and (micro-)tonal ways of thinking; no specific prior knowledge is required, but participants are expected to be willing to experiment on their own instruments—or, if necessary, with their own voices.

Literature

Barthelmes, Barbara: Space and Sound. The Musical and Theoretical Work of Ivan Wyschnegradsky. Berlin 1995

Cordes, Manfred: Nicola Vicentino’s Enharmonics. Music with 31 Notes. Graz 2007

Farrayj, Johnny/Shumays, Sami Abu: Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century. New York 2019

Gann, Kyle: The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory & History for the Impractical Musician. Chicago, et al., 2019

Geller, Doris: Practical Intonation Theory for Instrumentalists and Singers. Kassel 2003 (3rd edition)

Metzger, Heinz-Klaus/Riehn, Rainer (eds.): Music of the Other Tradition. Microtonal Sound Worlds (Musik-Konzepte Special Issue). Munich 2003

Pätzold, Cordula/Walter, Caspar Johannes (Eds.): Microtonality—Practice and Utopia. Mainz 2014

Partch, Harry: *Genesis of a Music*. An account of a creative work, its roots and its fulfillments. New York 1979 (2nd edition)

Pfrogner, Hermann: *The Twelve-Tone System*. Zurich 1953

Reichert, Jonas: Microtonality in Mexico. Conceptualization and Realization of Julián Carrillo’s “Sonido 13” (1921–1925). Berlin 2026

Stahnke, Manfred (ed.): Microtones and More: In the Footsteps of György Ligeti in Hamburg. Hamburg 2005

Zimmermann, Bastian (ed.): Untwelving (=Positionen 144). Berlin 2025

Credits

3 Creditpoints

Comments

Courses offered to BA and MA students in all disciplines.
Please register by emailing sebastian.sprenger[at]hfmt-hamburg.de by October 5, 2026, and include your degree program.
Course Requirements: Continuous active participation (both linguistically and musically) in class activities; a paper or presentation

Modules

Musiktheoretisches Modul 1 Instrumentalisten Master, Musiktheoretisches Modul 2 Kirchenmusik A (Master), Wahlmodul freie Wahl (alle Studiengänge)