The Drum of Bells
The Drum of Bells is a form of music used for entertainment originally devised by the human Anu Juggledyell. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a kise, three ini and a ime. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is at a walking pace. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the use scale and in the suku rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to glide from note to note and modulate frequently.
- The singer always does harmony and should feel mysterious.
- The kise always provides the rhythm, should be melancholic and adds fills.
- Each ini always provides the rhythm and should perform sweetly.
- The ime always does the main melody and should perform with feeling.
- The Drum of Bells has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, a brief exposition of the theme, a bridge-passage and a recapitulation of the theme.
- The theme is to be in whispered undertones. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
- The exposition is to be in whispered undertones. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
- The bridge-passage is to be very soft. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
- The recapitulation is to be loud. The singer's voice covers its entire range. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
- Scales are constructed from twenty notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. After a scale is constructed, notes are named according to degree. The names are dik (spoken di), tunem (tu), ramet (ra), icmon (ic), ozi (oz), stalcon (sta) and nek (ne).
- The use hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th, the 10th, the 13th and the 17th.
- The suku rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into four bars in a 4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named rorec (spoken ro), musda (mu), uzu (uz) and onaf (on). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x x x - | x - x`x | x x - x | - - - x |
- where ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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