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I know that the more typical notation for the little X in the time signature is used for double sharps, but in the intro of the volume the author of this work seems to say that he is using that symbol to denote a quarter tone:

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However, nowhere does he specify what the angled lines mean. Anyone have any clues?

The music is from Thesaurus of Oriental Hebrew Melodies by Abraham Zevi Idelsohn in 1923.

Aaron
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  • Seeing as the external notes are in the Hebrew alphabet, I'm guessing that stuff where the key signature and/or the meter should go may very well also be some Hebrew lettering or symbol. Try searching thru some "Hebrew Music Dictionary" if there is such a thing. I'm also not convinced that the "x-ey" thing here is the same as his claim about quarter-tones, as it makes no sense to put it here unless he intends for ever "C" in the piece to be off by a quarter. – Carl Witthoft Oct 21 '15 at 19:16
  • @CarlWitthoft i've added the section from the intro that discusses the key signature for you to decide what the intent of the author is. Also, the work was originally written in German, it was never written in Hebrew, but happened to be intended for musically inclined Jews to read. The volume i have is a translation from the German into English. – Aaron Oct 21 '15 at 19:33
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    I would say that clearly the "X" accidental marking is interpreted as: every C is read as a quarter-tone between C# and D. As for the second accidental, I would assume it is interpreted as: for every A, play the quarter-tone between A and A#. I've never seen this marking before but will ask around for you. There will be a new-music festival held at my school this weekend so I will likely find at least 1 person familiar with this notation. – SpiderShlong Oct 21 '15 at 20:47
  • @SpiderShlong Thank you very much, i would greatly appreciate that as i am using this chart to learn to chant the bible, but not knowing what these symbols mean are holding me back – Aaron Oct 21 '15 at 21:15
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    Made a mistake in my previous comment. The "X" i believe refers to the lower quarter-tone while the "//" refers to the upper quarter-tone. This wikipedia page has a possibly helpful section on microtonal notaion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_(music) – SpiderShlong Oct 21 '15 at 21:31
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    @CarlWitthoft, it seems unlikely that the // symbol refers to a meter since the example has irregular groupings. I think that's why the lines aren't true measure lines. – Alex Oct 21 '15 at 23:09
  • Judging from his charts of scales with the sizes of the intervals underneath in cents, he uses "x" for something that is roughly a quarter-tone sharp, and "-" (the minus sign) for something roughly 3/4-tones flat. I am guessing that he is using the obliques here to stand in for the minus sign on B and G, hence they would be 3/4 flat. –  Oct 22 '15 at 19:09
  • The angled lines are explained in volumes 2 and 3 of this reference but they are in German and I couldn't quite makes sense of it. In many cases it seemed to mean that the note with the angled line split the difference between the two notes on either side of it. That could apply to the B in your example but I don't see how it could apply to the G. – Alex Oct 22 '15 at 20:51
  • @Alex What pages in those volumes? Perhaps i could take screenshots and get them translated – Aaron Oct 23 '15 at 01:18

2 Answers2

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The angled lines are variant accidentals, indicating "one quarter tone sharp."

The notation in question is a variant key signature, not a time signature. (Disregarding the sometimes conflicting information in your second photograph), the key signature is "C double-sharp, B one quarter tone sharp, G one quarter tone sharp."

The several possibilities for quarter tones are given in Gardner Read's "Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice", pg. 145 (shown below). Your author's choice is documented on row 5, column 2.

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Everett Steed
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In the Western music tradition we would call this method 'detuning' or 'microtonal shift'

In the western music tradition there are scales which follow the pattern 

Whole Whole  Half, Whole Whole Whole Half

This means that from one note to its octave higher we can play a "scale" that sounds like beautiful travel up the notes to the next tonic (like from D up to D, or C to C)

If you look at the staff with the word "common line" to the left and you start on the higher D, you can see the scale wrap around in the fashion

1 1 .5, 1 1 1 .5 (whole whole half...)

Now look at the staff below this one and start on D again and wrap around

1 .75 .75, 1 1 .75 .75

This means that the Ds will sound the same as in the western piano tuning, as well as G and A.

The remaining notes of this scale ([d] E F [g] [a] B C) ... E, F, B, and C are all slightly different than in the western tuning. How are they different?

The X means to detune the "western traditional note" by 25 cents or 1/4 tone.

Detuning C, E, and F by 25 cents should make everything work because the total number of steps in the octave will still be the same as a "western" scale.

sova
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    I believe you to be sure. It is indeed what I get from the text. I am curious if this is answer is informed by an understanding of the book, Hebrew music, microtonal music, or merely the text of the question. – amalgamate Oct 22 '15 at 18:21
  • @amalgamate my reply is rather late, but my understanding is purely based on this question and my personal experience in understanding non-conventional tunings – sova Feb 20 '16 at 02:46