The Droplets of Meandering
The Droplets of Meandering is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the goblin Ago Joysin. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a noslong. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the lubu scale and in the uto rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to alternate tension and repose.
- The noslong always does the main melody and should be melancholic.
- The Droplets of Meandering has a simple structure: three to four lengthy unrelated passages.
- Each of the simple passages is consistently slowing, and it is to be soft. Each passage should be performed using frequent modulation.
- 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 lubu hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 7th, the 10th, the 13th 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 uto rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - | - x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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