The Umber Droplet
The Umber Droplet is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Pink Seduction. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on three emo and a noslong. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The entire performance should be triumphant. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose and play staccato.
- Each emo always does the main melody and is to become louder and louder. The voice stays in the sonorous low register.
- The noslong always does harmony and is to become softer and softer.
- The Umber Droplet has a simple structure: a passage.
- The simple passage slows and broadens. The passage is performed using the ogo scale and in the ron rhythm.
- Scales are constructed from twenty notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xx-xxxxx-xx-xxx-xxxxxxxO, 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, the root note of chords are named. The names are usnusp (spoken us) and ngub (ngu).
- The ogo pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 8th, the 14th and the 16th.
- 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 ron rhythm is made from two patterns: the bor (considered the primary) and the usmdas. As stated above, they are to be played in polyrhythm.
- The bor rhythm is a single line with seven beats. The beats are named osm (spoken osm), enu (en), stol (sto), zak (za), tuxxu (tu), ugas (ug) and ustrok (us). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - - - x - - - |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
- The usmdas rhythm is a single line with nine beats divided into three bars in a 3-3-3 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - x x | - x x | x x x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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