The Glittery Skirt

The Glittery Skirt is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Nations of Competing. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a cathi. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should be delicate. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed without preference for a scale.

• The chanter always provides the rhythm.
• The cathi always does the main melody.
• The Glittery Skirt has the following structure: a passage and a coda.
• The simple passage is very fast, and it is to be moderately loud. The chanter's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage is performed in the apu rhythm.
• The coda is slow, and it is to be in whispered undertones. The chanter's voice covers its entire range. The passage is performed in the seggu rhythm.
• The rhythm system is fundamentally polymetric. There are always multiple rhythm lines, and the beats are always played together, even if one rhythm line completes (and then repeats) before the other is finished. The rhythm lines are thought of as one, without a primary-subordinate relationship, though individual lines can be named.
• The apu rhythm is made from two patterns: the osp and the umo. As stated above, they are to be played in polymeter.
• The osp rhythm is a single line with eight beats divided into two bars in a 4-4 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - x - | - - x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The umo rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beats are named rostfen (spoken ro), hiner (hi), ohe (oh) and nazweng (na). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The seggu rhythm is made from two patterns: the tod and the arin. As stated above, they are to be played in polymeter.
• The tod rhythm is a single line with twenty-nine beats divided into five bars in a 6-5-9-5-4 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 | x x - X |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The arin 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 - - |
• where ! marks the primary accent, X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events