The Goldenrod Tulip
The Goldenrod Tulip is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the elf Cana Spunpelt. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a thefira. The entire performance is at a free tempo, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. It is performed in the arile rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to modulate frequently and play arpeggios.
- The thefira always does the main melody and should be passionate.
- The Goldenrod Tulip has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy theme, a bridge-passage and one to two series of variations on the theme.
- The theme has short phrases in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the tarathe scale.
- The bridge-passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed using the fidale scale.
- Each of the series of variations has long phrases in the melody. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. Each passage is performed using the yaniye scale.
- Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are otoga (spoken ot) and dinade (di).
- The tarathe pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aratha and fathinu.
- The aratha trichord is the 1st, the 6th and the 13th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The fathinu trichord is the 15th, the 16th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The fidale hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named eyo and fela.
- The eyo trichord is the 1st, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The fela tetrachord is the 15th, the 17th, the 22nd and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The yaniye heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named adi and fela.
- The adi tetrachord is the 1st, the 5th, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- 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 arile rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into eight bars in a 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named opa (spoken op), eli (el), mifava (mi) and nanotha (na). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - x - - | - x - - | - x - - | x x x - | - x x x | - - x - | - x x x | - x x x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
Events