The Learned Yells

The Learned Yells is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of The Ivy of Dusk originating in The Portals of Strength. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on one to four id, a tathur and a orngim. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance is to fade into silence. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the bemong scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to make trills and modulate frequently.

• Each id always does the main melody and should be bright. The voice uses its entire range from the raspy low register to the rippling high register.
• The tathur always provides the rhythm and should perform expressively. The voice uses its entire range from the quavering low register to the reedy high register.
• The orngim always does the counterpoint melody and should be vigorous.
• The Learned Yells has a simple structure: a passage.
• The simple passage is extremely fast.
• Scales are constructed from twelve 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 ontak (spoken ont) and tosid (to).
• The bemong pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a perfect fifth and a major third. These chords are named gatal and ustos.
• The gatal trichord is the 1st, the 3rd and the 8th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The ustos trichord is the 9th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.

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