19

I came across this symbol (unfortunately not in context — I was looking through some engraving font glyphs) that looks like a sharp with a 4 above it:

Musical Sharp Symbol with 4 above it attached to the left vertical line

What is this symbol called and what does it mean? If it's not a standalone symbol and instead is something composited, what context would it be used in?

Elements In Space
  • 13,682
  • 4
  • 29
  • 78
Bailey Parker
  • 293
  • 2
  • 6

1 Answers1

25

According to the list of musical symbols at Dolmetsch Online, that is a quarter-tone sharp sign; it signifies that a pitch should be raised by a quarter-tone. There is an analogous quarter-tone flat symbol.

  • 2
    Indeed! Wikipedia's list only had the sharp with a single line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols#Quarter_tones Thanks! – Bailey Parker Jul 29 '19 at 13:25
  • 20
    I've tried playing it on piano, but it's not easy playing in the cracks! – Tim Jul 29 '19 at 13:45
  • 4
    @Tim you have to pull on the strings with your free hand :-) – Carl Witthoft Jul 29 '19 at 15:12
  • 17
    @Tim Amateur singers are experts at producing these notes, though... ;-) – cmaster - reinstate monica Jul 29 '19 at 21:50
  • @Tim you need a second piano tuned by some "A=430" imbecile. Edit: nope; that gets us about 0.4 of a tone, not 0.25. – Kaz Jul 30 '19 at 03:18
  • 5
    And a really bad one, I might add. If you play quarter-tone music of any length, such a large, busy symbol for a single alteration makes the score really hard to read. Luckily there are other quarter-tone symbols available. – Kilian Foth Jul 30 '19 at 06:03
  • At risk of sounding sacrilegeous but E-Pianos often come equipped with a pitch-bend-thingy – infinitezero Jul 30 '19 at 09:41
  • Hah! Saxophones bend by quarter and half tones all the time. Not always intentionally, I might add. – RedSonja Jul 30 '19 at 10:53
  • 1
    @cmaster I play trombone, and I produce them all the time. Have yet to see them printed though. – Arthur Jul 30 '19 at 14:10
  • I've seen a piano (in a museum) with a third row of grey keys in between all the other keys for playing quarter-tones. Sadly they won't let you play it. I imagine it's very rare and extremely expensive. – Darrel Hoffman Jul 30 '19 at 14:45