The Jump of Butterflies
The Jump of Butterflies is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of The Beans of Autumn originating in The Lilac of Praise. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites any composition of The Bud of Wind while the music is played on a ile, a becaro and a nemo. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The melody and counterpoint both have short phrases throughout the form. Pitches are densely packed in clusters as music moves from chord to chord. It is performed using the cebela scale and in the arazi rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to make trills and play rapid runs.
- The chanter always does the counterpoint melody.
- The ile always does the main melody.
- The becaro always does the main melody and matches notes and syllables.
- The nemo always provides the rhythm.
- The Jump of Butterflies has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief passage, a lengthy bridge-passage and a finale.
- The simple passage should be made with a light touch and is very slow, and it is to be moderately soft. The becaro covers its entire range from the strained low register to the rich high register, the chanter's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register and the nemo stays in the wavering low register.
- The bridge-passage should be passionate and is twice the tempo of the last passage, and it is to be very soft. The becaro stays in the rich high register, the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register and the nemo covers its entire range from the wavering low register to the strained high register.
- The finale should be fiery and slows and broadens, and it is to become louder and louder. The becaro covers its entire range from the strained low register to the rich high register, the chanter's voice covers its entire range and the nemo covers its entire range from the wavering low register to the strained high register.
- 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 imeri (spoken im) and thuna (thu).
- The cebela pentatonic scale is thought of as joined chords spanning a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth. These chords are named warere and aweme.
- The warere tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- The aweme trichord is the 8th, the 10th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- 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 arazi rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into two bars in a 8-8 pattern. The beats are named fidale (spoken fi), tarathe (ta), cuthefi (cu), cede (ce), otoga (ot), dinade (di), ele (el) and timafi (ti). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x X x x x - - x | - - - - - x - - |
- where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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