The Cyclopean Embraces

The Cyclopean Embraces is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Confederacies of Habit. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. Two chanters recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a kupko and two dak. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance should be passionate and slows and broadens, and it is to become louder and louder. The melody and counterpoint both have phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed without preference for a scale and in the nazweng rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents, play rapid runs and alternate tension and repose.

• The kupko always does the main melody. The voice stays in the crisp high register.
• The Cyclopean Embraces has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, a lengthy bridge-passage and one to two series of variations on the theme.
• The theme is voiced by the melody of the chanters reciting nonsensical words and sounds, the melody of the kupko and the harmony of the dak. Each of the chanters' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register, the kupko stays in the crisp high register and each of the dak covers its entire range from the wavering low register to the dark high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The bridge-passage is voiced by the melody of the kupko, the counterpoint of the dak and the rhythm of the chanters reciting nonsensical words and sounds. The kupko stays in the crisp high register, each of the dak stays in the dark high register and each of the chanters' voices stays in the middle register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• Each of the series of variations is voiced by the melody of the kupko, the melody of the dak and the harmony of the chanters reciting nonsensical words and sounds. The kupko stays in the crisp high register, each of the dak stays in the wavering low register and each of the chanters' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• The rhythm system is fundamentally polyrhythmic. There are always multiple rhythm lines, and each of their bars is played over the same period of time, regardless of the number of beats. The rhythm lines are thought of as one, without a primary-subordinate relationship, though individual lines can be named.
• The rhythm system is fundamentally polymetric. There are always multiple rhythm lines, and the beats are always played together, even if one rhythm line completes (and then repeats) before the other is finished. The rhythm lines are thought of as one, without a primary-subordinate relationship, though individual lines can be named.
• The nazweng rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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