The Wooden Whisker
The Wooden Whisker is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Aye the Furs of Heather originally devised by the elf Aweme Beardtwig. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a nithara. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The entire performance is consistently slowing. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the yaniye scale and in the fecaci rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use mordents and play legato.
- The chanter always does the main melody.
- The nithara always does harmony.
- The Wooden Whisker has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a theme and a series of variations on the theme and a lengthy coda.
- The introduction should feel mysterious, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. The chanter's voice stays in the high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
- The theme should be graceful, and it is to be in whispered undertones. The chanter's voice stays in the low register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
- The series of variations should feel calm, and it is to be moderately soft. The chanter's voice stays in the high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
- The coda should be broad, and it is to be very soft. The chanter's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should be performed using glides.
- Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
- The yaniye hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aro and fena.
- The aro tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- The fena trichord is the 8th, the 9th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- The fecaci rhythm is made from two patterns: the mathuva and the ele. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
- The mathuva rhythm is a single line with seven beats. The beats are named bulifo (spoken bu), ada (ad), mamo (ma), icithi (ic), arile (ar), opa (op) and eli (el). 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.
- The ele rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into six bars in a 7-6-3-6-5-5 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - - X - x x - | - - x`x X - | x X`x | - - - x - - | - - x X x | - x X'- x |
- where X marks an accented beat, ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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