The Lilac of Lyrics
The Lilac of Lyrics is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the elf Eletha Glimmerblockades. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a darala. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should feel mysterious. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. The music is broadly layered with chords spanning the range. It is performed in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use grace notes and play rapid runs.
- The singer always does the main melody and makes trills.
- The darala always provides the rhythm and adds fills.
- The Lilac of Lyrics has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy introduction and a lengthy theme and one to two lengthy series of variations on the theme.
- The introduction is extremely fast, and it is to fade into silence. The singer's voice stays in the high register. The passage is performed using the yaniye scale. The passage should be composed and performed using frequent modulation and legato.
- The theme is slow, and it is to become louder and louder. The singer's voice stays in the low register. The passage is performed using the imeri scale.
- Each of the series of variations is moderately fast, and it is to be soft. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. Each passage is performed using the aweme scale. Each passage should be composed and performed using legato.
- Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are thuna (spoken thu, 1st), arazi (ar, 4th), fidale (fi, 7th) and tarathe (ta, 9th).
- As always, the yaniye heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named adi and fathinu.
- The adi tetrachord is the 1st, the 5th, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The fathinu tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- As always, the imeri pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ifife and fomire.
- The ifife trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The fomire trichord is the 1st, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- As always, the aweme hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ifife and fathinu.
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