The Drum of Songs
The Drum of Songs is a devotional form of music originally devised by the goblin Bosa Badfull. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a uspax, a sodor and three sad. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The melody and counterpoint both have short phrases throughout the form. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to add fills.
- The chanter always should feel mournful.
- The uspax always should perform expressively.
- The sodor always should be stately.
- Each sad always should perform expressively.
- The Drum of Songs has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy theme, an exposition of the theme and a brief recapitulation of the theme.
- The theme is voiced by the melody of the chanter reciting nonsensical words and sounds, the counterpoint of the sad and the rhythm of the sodor. The passage is consistently slowing, and it is to be moderately soft. The chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the nuklat scale and in free rhythm. The passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
- The exposition is voiced by the melody of the sad, the harmony of the sodor and the rhythm of the uspax. The passage is slow, and it is to be moderately soft. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the ost scale and in free rhythm. The passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
- The recapitulation is voiced by the melody of the chanter reciting any composition of The Beige Visionary, the rhythm of the uspax and the rhythm of the sad. The passage is at a free tempo, and it is to be loud. The chanter's voice stays in the high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed using the ozse scale and in the tobog rhythm.
- Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eight notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
- As always, the nuklat hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ogo and ekxox.
- The ogo tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 5th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The ekxox trichord is the 1st, the 3rd and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- As always, the ost hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named lasm and ngub.
- The lasm tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 5th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The ngub trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- As always, the ozse pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named abo and ekxox.
- The abo trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The tobog rhythm is made from two patterns: the kabu (considered the primary) and the enu. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
- The kabu rhythm is a single line with five beats. The beats are named ron (spoken ro), zudol (zu), zaxo (za), ospo (os) and strog (stro). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - x x - - |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
- The enu rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into eight bars in a 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 pattern. The beats are named stol (spoken sto) and zak (za). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - | x - | x - | - x | - x'| x'x | x x | x x`|
- where ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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