De halve toon
Example: De pianist speelt een melodie met een halve toon hoger.
Definition
"De halve toon" in music refers to the smallest interval commonly used in Western music, representing a pitch difference between two adjacent keys on a piano. For example, playing a melody a half step higher changes the sound subtly but distinctly.
Etymology
The phrase "de halve toon" comes from Dutch, where "halve" means half and "toon" means tone or note. It literally translates to "the half tone," reflecting its role as half the distance of a whole tone in musical scales.
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"De halve toon" appears in the Vocaplus list "Dutch - Music - (A2) - set 1", containing 102 commonly used words.
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