The enharmonic genus (Ancient Greek: ἐναρμόνιον, ἁρμονία; Latin: enarmonium, enarmonicum, harmonia) has historically been the most mysterious and controversial of the three Greek genera of tetrachords. Its characteristic interval is a ditone (or major third in modern terminology), leaving the remainder of the tetrachord (called the pyknon) to be divided by two intervals smaller than a semitone called dieses (approximately quarter tones, but they could be calculated in a variety of ways). Because it is not easily represented by Pythagorean tuning or meantone temperament, there was much fascination with it in the Renaissance. It has nothing to do with modern uses of the term enharmonic.
Read more about Enharmonic Genus: Notation, Tunings of The Enharmonic
Famous quotes containing the word genus:
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)