The Poet of Drumming

The Poet of Drumming is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the elf Liceyi Controlroar. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. Two speakers recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a nithara and a ice. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is very slow, and it is to be moderately loud. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the atho scale and in the ereni rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to glide from note to note, syncopate and modulate frequently.

• Each speaker always should be fiery and plays legato.
• The nithara always provides the rhythm and should perform sweetly.
• The ice always does the main melody and should feel heroic.
• The Poet of Drumming has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, an exposition of the theme, a lengthy bridge-passage and a recapitulation of the theme.
• In the theme, the ice ranges from the crisp low register to the watery middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
• In the exposition, the ice covers its entire range from the crisp low register to the dull high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• In the bridge-passage, the ice ranges from the crisp low register to the watery middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• In the recapitulation, the ice ranges from the crisp low register to the watery middle register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• The atho heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named warere and fela.
• The warere tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The fela tetrachord is the 8th, the 10th, the 12th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The ereni rhythm is made from two patterns: the fidale and the mafina. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The fidale rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named tarathe (spoken ta) and cuthefi (cu). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The mafina rhythm is a single line with seven beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x X x`- - |
• where X marks an accented beat, ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events

• In late autumn of 149, The Poet of Drumming was created by the elf Liceyi Controlroar in Fedlobster