The smallest interval used in classical Western music, equal to a twelfth of an octave or half a tone.
〔乐〕半音；半音程
Also called half step
Example sentencesExamples
If the given key is not so advantageous to the singer we may end up playing the work a semitone lower, which makes a great improvement.
I remember being particularly horrified at the drop of a semitone on the word ‘Dona’.
The subject is almost all semitones, this time expressing yearning and anticipation, rather than sorrow.
By the end of ‘Cromosomi’, with its tricky harmonic sequence that descends in semitones, he had the audience in the palm of his hand.
Smaller intervals were derived on the same principles, so that the octave could eventually be marked out into tones and semitones which might be combined to form other intervals.
Definition of semitone in US English:
semitone
noun
British Music
The smallest interval used in classical Western music, equal to a twelfth of an octave or half a tone.
〔乐〕半音；半音程
Also called half step
Example sentencesExamples
By the end of ‘Cromosomi’, with its tricky harmonic sequence that descends in semitones, he had the audience in the palm of his hand.
The subject is almost all semitones, this time expressing yearning and anticipation, rather than sorrow.
Smaller intervals were derived on the same principles, so that the octave could eventually be marked out into tones and semitones which might be combined to form other intervals.
If the given key is not so advantageous to the singer we may end up playing the work a semitone lower, which makes a great improvement.
I remember being particularly horrified at the drop of a semitone on the word ‘Dona’.