The Taupe Drum

The Taupe Drum is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the human Icop Pridemaster. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A speaker recites any composition of The Saturnine String while the music is played on one to five pestrat. The musical voices are joined in melody. The entire performance should be spirited and slows and broadens. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Pitches are densely packed in clusters as music moves from chord to chord. It is performed without preference for a scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play arpeggios and spread syllables over many notes.

• Each pestrat always does the main melody.
• The Taupe Drum has the following structure: three to five unrelated passages and a coda.
• Each of the simple passages is to be loud. Each of the pestrat ranges from the sparkling middle register to the heavy high register.
• The coda is to be in whispered undertones. Each of the pestrat is confined to the crisp low register.

Events

• In midsummer of 266, The Taupe Drum was created by the human Icop Pridemaster in Clusterharvest