The Musical Chant
The Musical Chant is a devotional form of music originally devised by the dwarf Domas Netcudgel. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a rithzam and one to three otung. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is very slow. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the kulet scale and in the tosid rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to alternate tension and repose.
- The rithzam always does the main melody and should be spirited.
- Each otung always should be fiery.
- The Musical Chant has the following structure: a lengthy passage and another one to two passages possibly all repeated.
- The first simple passage is voiced by the melody of the rithzam and the rhythm of the otung. The passage is to be moderately loud. The rithzam ranges from the muddy low register to the quavering middle register and each of the otung stays in the ringing high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
- Each of the second simple passages is voiced by the melody of the rithzam and the melody of the otung. Each passage is to be moderately soft. The rithzam ranges from the quavering middle register to the raucous high register and each of the otung covers its entire range from the piercing low register to the ringing high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
- Scales are constructed from nineteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xx-xxxx-xx-xxx-xxx-xxxxO, 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 kulet hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 8th, the 10th, the 13th and the 17th.
- 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 tosid rhythm is a single line with fifteen beats divided into five bars in a 3-3-3-3-3 pattern. The beats are named feb (spoken fe), berim (be) and ibruk (ib). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - - | x x x | x - x | - x x | x x x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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