The Chant of Embraces

The Chant of Embraces is a devotional form of music originating in The Ruthlessness of Arenas. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A speaker recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a omo. The musical voices are joined in melody. The entire performance is to fade into silence. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the sasne scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose and modulate frequently.

• The speaker always should evoke tears.
• The omo always does the main melody and should be passionate.
• The Chant of Embraces has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief theme, an exposition of the theme, a bridge-passage and a recapitulation of the theme.
• The theme is at a walking pace. The omo stays in the strident low register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The exposition moves more quickly than the last passage. The omo stays in the strident low register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The bridge-passage is slow. The omo covers its entire range from the strident low register to the sparkling high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The recapitulation slows and broadens. The omo stays in the strident low register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eight notes. 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 urdu (spoken urd) and usmdas (us).
• As always, the sasne hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named abo and ekxox.
• The abo trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The ekxox tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 5th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

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