The Prim Styles

The Prim Styles is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the elf Pila Musicfires. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. One to four chanters recite The Prim Genius while the music is played on a otoga. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the warere scale and in the emu rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to locally improvise.

• Each chanter always does the main melody, should perform expressively and uses mordents.
• The otoga always provides the rhythm and should perform sweetly.
• The Prim Styles has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a theme, an exposition of the theme, a bridge-passage and a recapitulation of the theme.
• The introduction is fast, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the chanters' voices stays in the middle register and the otoga ranges from the wispy low register to the quavering middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should always include a falling melody pattern with glides and trills, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with grace notes, mordents and arpeggios and sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides and legato.
• The theme is fast, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the chanters' voices covers its entire range and the otoga covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the dark high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should always include a falling melody pattern with trills, rapid runs and legato, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened third degree on the rise and sometimes include a rising melody pattern with trills and legato.
• The exposition is half the tempo of the last passage, and it is to be moderately soft. Each of the chanters' voices covers its entire range and the otoga ranges from the wispy low register to the quavering middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with trills and staccato and often include a falling melody pattern with sharpened third degree as well as glides, grace notes, mordents and rapid runs.
• The bridge-passage accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to fade into silence. Each of the chanters' voices covers its entire range and the otoga covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the dark high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened fourth degree on the fall as well as trills and staccato and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with flattened third degree on the fall as well as grace notes and trills.
• The recapitulation is at a walking pace, and it is to become softer and softer. Each of the chanters' voices covers its entire range and the otoga ranges from the quavering middle register to the dark high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should sometimes include a rising melody pattern with rapid runs, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened third degree on the rise as well as glides, arpeggios and legato, sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with mordents and always include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree as well as glides, grace notes, trills and legato.
• Scales are constructed from fifteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-x-x-xx-x-xxxx-xx-x-xO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The warere pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th, the 11th and the 13th.
• The emu rhythm is made from two patterns: the cede (considered the primary) and the fela. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The cede 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.
• The fela rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beats are named aweme (spoken aw) and fena (fe). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | x x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events

• In early summer of 116, The Prim Styles was created by the elf Pila Musicfires in Ripefastened