The Blossom of Periwinkles
The Blossom of Periwinkles is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Jump of Bristling. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites The Reason of Glitter while the music is played on a nithara. The musical voices are joined in melody. The entire performance should be grand. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed in the one rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to make trills and spread syllables over many notes.
- The singer always does the main melody.
- The nithara always does the main melody.
- The Blossom of Periwinkles has the following structure: a verse and a brief chorus all repeated two times.
- The verse is very slow, and it is to be moderately loud. The singer's voice stays in the high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage is performed using the cebela scale.
- The chorus is consistently slowing, and it is to be loud. The singer's voice covers its entire range. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage is performed using the yaniye scale.
- Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
- The cebela heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th, the 6th and the 7th.
- 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 one rhythm is made from two patterns: the cede and the pama. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
- The cede rhythm is a single line with nine beats divided into three bars in a 3-3-3 pattern. The beats are named otoga (spoken ot), dinade (di) and cenopu (ce). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x x - | x x X | X x x |
- where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
- The pama rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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