The Rain of Leaping

The Rain of Leaping is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Acithi the Summer of Flowers originating in The Hale Field. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites any composition of The Quiescent Ferry while the music is played on a lethathi and a aro. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should be made sweetly and is fast. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed in the atho rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to make trills and spread syllables over many notes.

• The chanter always provides the rhythm and is to become louder and louder.
• The lethathi always provides the rhythm and is to fade into silence.
• The aro always does the main melody, is to become louder and louder and plays arpeggios.
• The Rain of Leaping has the following structure: three to five unrelated passages and a coda.
• In each of the simple passages, the chanter's voice stays in the low register and the lethathi covers its entire range from the rippling low register to the muddy high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. Each passage is performed using the fathinu scale. Each passage should be composed and performed using grace notes.
• In the coda, the chanter's voice stays in the high register and the lethathi stays in the muddy high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed using the fomire scale.
• Scales are constructed from seventeen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xxxx-x-x-x-xxx-xxxx-xxO, 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.
• The fathinu hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 6th, the 10th, the 12th and the 16th.
• The fomire heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 6th, the 7th, the 9th, the 10th and the 14th.
• 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 rhythm system is fundamentally polymetric. There are always multiple rhythm lines, and the beats are always played together, even if one rhythm line completes (and then repeats) before the other is finished. The rhythm lines are thought of as one, without a primary-subordinate relationship, though individual lines can be named.
• The atho rhythm is a single line with twelve beats divided into four bars in a 3-3-3-3 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | ! x x | - x x | - x - | x X x |
• where ! marks the primary accent, X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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