The Euphoria of Amethyst
The Euphoria of Amethyst is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the elf Imeva Plungecreatures. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites any composition of The Song of Aquamarine while the music is played on a lunaba and a ali. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Pitches are densely packed in clusters as music moves from chord to chord. It is performed using the datome scale and in the etini rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to add fills and match notes and syllables.
- The singer always provides the rhythm, should perform expressively and is to be in whispered undertones. The voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
- The lunaba always does harmony, should feel mournful and is to become softer and softer. The voice ranges from the watery middle register to the rippling high register.
- The ali always does the main melody, should perform with feeling and is to become softer and softer.
- The Euphoria of Amethyst has a simple structure: a passage.
- The simple passage is at a walking pace.
- Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
- The datome hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named ifife and fela.
- The ifife tetrachord is the 1st, the 6th, the 12th and the 13th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The fela trichord is the 15th, the 21st and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- 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 etini rhythm is made from two patterns: the aratha (considered the primary) and the timafi. As stated above, they are to be played in polyrhythm.
- The aratha rhythm is a single line with twenty-five beats divided into five bars in a 5-5-5-5-5 pattern. The beats are named imeri (spoken im), thuna (thu), arazi (ar), fidale (fi) and tarathe (ta). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x x X - x | x ! - - x | - - - x 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.
- The timafi 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 beat is stressed as follows:
- | x X x - | x - - x | x x - - | - - x x | x x ! - | - - 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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