Subjects
music, music theory, microtonality, musical tuning, social science, public perception
Abstract
In this article, I attempted to answer the question of how microtonal musicians and music theorists view the general public's perception of microtonal music. To do this, I had three one-on-one interviews and one focus group with microtonal musicians, which were all audio recorded with consent from the participants. Patterns that emerged from their responses included blaming corporate and academic establishments for their conservatism in music theory, mentioning the different possible definitions one may make for microtonality based on geographic culture and so on, and bringing up the idea that people think that microtonality is less diverse than it actually is. Multiple participants also expressed the importance of simply making more microtonal music to improve its publicity (with one participant emphasizing the importance of more well-known artists exposing people to microtonal music). The question of how the public itself views microtonal music is also briefly discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Young, Tristan B. (2026) "The Public Relations of Microtonal Music Through the Eyes and Ears of Microtonalists," Anthós: Vol. 15: Iss. 1, Article 6.
