The Petal-Lyric of Mothers

The Petal-Lyric of Mothers is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Humid Volcano. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a nokim and a imgoz. The musical voices bring melody and counterpoint. The melody has mid-length phrases, while the counterpoint has phrases of varied length throughout the form. The music is broadly layered with chords spanning the range. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed without preference for a scale and in the robek rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to modulate frequently and play staccato.

• The chanter always does the counterpoint melody. The voice stays in the low register.
• The nokim always does the main melody and makes trills. The voice ranges from the wavering low register to the rich middle register.
• The imgoz always does the counterpoint melody. The voice ranges from the strident low register to the harsh middle register.
• The Petal-Lyric of Mothers has a simple structure: a passage.
• The simple passage should feel tender and is slow, and it is to become softer and softer.
• 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 robek rhythm is made from two patterns: the thoth (considered the primary) and the zustash. As stated above, they are to be played in polyrhythm.
• The thoth rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into six bars in a 3-4-6-7-8-4 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 x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The zustash rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named sedil (spoken se) and ustos (us). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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