A character [♭] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.
A series of six notes, with a semitone between the third and fourth, the other intervals being whole tones.
Indeed, a pupil may study music a long time before he finds out that there is no difference between flats and sharps, as such, and other notes--that all notes are flats and sharps of the notes a semitone above and below.
If we commence a scale with G, our do will be on the second line from the bottom, and the octave on the first space above the staff; and so on for all the other scales except those which commence a semitone below or above.
Shifting thesemitone one degree upwards in each tetrachord, we have the Phrygian [Illustration: musical notes.
Then, by dividing this second series of whole tones into third-tones, each third-tone in the lower series will be matched by a semitone in the higher series.
In England, under the reign of the high "concert pitch," the most familiar works may be played a semitone higher than they are written, without changing their effect.
By retaining, for each whole tone, a semitone, we obtain a second series of whole tones lying a semitone higher than the original series.
The diplomatic "Twelve-semitone system" is an invention mothered by necessity; yet none the less do we sedulously guard its imperfections.
Parhypate is a semitone above Hypate, and Lichanos a tone above Parhypate.
In the Diatonic genus, for example, a semitone must be followed by two tones, so as to make up the interval of a Fourth.
By further steps, of which there is no record, the Greek musicians arrived at the idea of a key for every semitone in the octave; and thus was formed the system of thirteen keys, ascribed to Aristoxenus by later writers.
In the ordinary Diatonic genus the intervals of the tetrachords are, in the ascending order, semitone + tone + tone: i.
They have, to a considerable extent, superseded hand stopping, by which expedient the intonation could be altered a semitone or whole tone, by depression of the natural notes of the instrument.
The player has seven positions, each a semitone apart for elongation, and each note has its own system of harmonics, but in practice he only occasionally goes beyond the fifth.
There is a flute which transposes a minor third higher than the ordinary flute; but it is not much used in the orchestra, although used in the army, as is also a flute one semitone higher than the concert flute.
To a Semitone Major one can go with a Rise or a Fall distinctly; to a Semitone Minor one cannot N.
Because one is a Semitone Major, and the other a Semitone Minor.
Therefore going so agreeably from Mi to Fa (that is) from B Quadro to C, or from E to F, one ought to conclude That to be a Semitone Major, as it undeniably is.
The second is the Shake Minor, consisting of a Sound, and its neighbouring Semitone Major; and where the one or the other of these, two Shakes are proper, the Compositions will easily shew.
Every one knows not that there is a Semitone Major and Minor,[10] because the Difference cannot be known by an Organ or Harpsichord, if the Keys of the Instrument are not split.
Difficulty of the Semitone Major and Minor are cleared.
The Ear, however, which is the supreme Umpire in this Art, does in the Appoggiatura so nicely discern the Quality of the Semitones, that it sufficiently distinguishes the Semitone Major.
Aristoxenus denies the identity, and says that the Hypodorian was a semitone below the Dorian or Hypolydian.
As his system of notation consisted of merely writing T for tone and S for semitone between the lines of his staff, it was only necessary to change the order of these letters for the octave at the beginning of each line.
The comb is the name given to two brass plates or covers which fit over both sides of the neck, concealing part of the mechanism for shortening the strings and raising their pitch a semitone when actuated by the pedals.
There is a string for every chromatic semitone of the scale of C major, the white strings representing the white keys of the piano keyboard, and the black strings corresponding to the black keys.
The curved fingerboard, almost parallel with the neck, is provided with frets, and has in addition a thumb-key for each string, by means of which the accordance of the string is mechanically raised a semitone at will.
Thus, the passage just cited, put a semitone lower, becomes a perfectly diatonic modulation from C to E flat.
The embellishment may be used either above or below, whether a semitone or a whole tone; but when it is a whole tone below, it is most satisfactory as the ninth of the implied chord.
It was said, and the statement is still repeated, that Brahms had been guilty of a dangerous and radical innovation in choosing for his slow movement a key removed by only one semitone from that of the work as a whole.
This system is answerable for the most offending cases of want of tunefulness, in which one part will sing on with the greatest of satisfaction in a key a semitone from that in which the part above or below is moving.
It is to make them sing the major diatonic scale, ascending and descending; beginning at a low pitch, and gradually raising it by a semitone at a time.
Her science and skill are such as to enable her to run over every tone and semitone with an ease and grace that cost apparently no effort.
The tenor commenced, but, instead of doing so in the key in which they were playing, he began to sing a semitone higher, in E natural.
The sentence reads for all the world like a twentieth-century eulogy of an ardent motorist, if we substitute for tone and semitone the words woman and child.
The solo violin is tuned a semitone higher, and the part is in D, while the orchestra plays in E flat.
Paganini again directs the violin to be tuned a semitone higher, writing the solo part in D, and the accompaniment in E flat.
Lastly, there was his wonderful performance on the fourth string, which he tuned up to B flat, and sometimes even a semitone higher.
The introduction is an elaborate movement, the violin tuned a semitone higher, and the part written in A, with accompaniment in B flat.
Mozart's Concertante for violin and viola, with orchestra, is in E flat, but the viola part is in D, and the instrument was to be tuned a semitone higher.
Paganini wrote the solo part of his first concerto in D (tuning his violin a semitone higher), and the orchestral parts in E flat.
For this the violin is tuned a semitone higher, the solo being played in A, and the accompaniment in B flat.
Now, as to Paganini's tuning his instrument a semitonehigher than the ordinary pitch.
The piece is in the key of E flat, and the violin is to be tuned a semitone higher, the soloist playing in D.
If Remenyi would tune his fiddle slightly up, so as to bring it to a truesemitone above the piano, he himself would transpose his part of the Beethoven sonata a semitone higher than written, and play it in C sharp instead of C minor.
The second instrument proved to be nearly a semitone below pitch, and Remenyi refused to make so considerable a change in the tuning of his violin.
Defn: A character [] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.
Defn: Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third.
Defn: A series of six notes, with a semitone between the third and fourth, the other intervals being whole tones.
The larger kind of interval between contiguous sounds in the diatonic scale, the smaller being called a semitone as, a whole tone too flat; raise it a tone.
A diesis is a quarter tone; hence in a semitone there are included two dieses.
What is called lichanos in the enharmonic is at the interval of a semitone from hypate; but when shifted to the chromatic, it goes two semitones away; and in the diatonic it is at an interval of three semitones from hypate.
In the diatonic, there are two consecutive tones, and the third interval of a semitone completes the tetrachord.
Thus, parhypate, which in the enharmonic is at the interval of half a semitone from hypate, has a semitone interval when transferred to the chromatic.
The group of six notes marked with an asterisk are trilled on the semitone interval.
The principal interest in this centers around the B-natural, indicating that the singer has a very decided appreciation of the half step and of the upward leading tendency of a tone raised a semitone by an accidental.
Begin the pattern again starting a semitone higher on D4 flat.
Music: 2--Broken C major triad in semibreves beginning and ending on C4, then raising a semitone to continue the pattern.
The fifth position therefore is a semitone higher than the fourth, the first finger stopping F.
The fourth position bears a lowered, but not a raised position, as there is only a semitone between E and F.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "semitone" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
