The Gulf of Waxes

The Gulf of Waxes is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Aye the Furs of Heather originating in The Gullies of Boarding. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on a ethefa and a thefira. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance should sparkle and is at a free tempo. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed using the tarathe scale and in the itho rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to make trills.

• The ethefa always is to fade into silence.
• The thefira always is to be moderately loud and plays legato.
• The Gulf of Waxes has a well-defined multi-passage structure: one to two lengthy passages and an additional passage possibly all repeated and a finale.
• Each of the first simple passages is voiced by the melody of the thefira and the harmony of the ethefa. The ethefa ranges from the strident low register to the watery middle register. Each passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. Each passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
• The second simple passage is voiced by the melody of the ethefa and the rhythm of the thefira. The ethefa covers its entire range from the strident low register to the shrill high register. The passage has long phrases in the melody.
• The finale is voiced by the melody of the thefira and the harmony of the ethefa. The ethefa ranges from the strident low register to the watery middle register. The passage has long phrases in the melody.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four 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 otoga (spoken ot) and dinade (di).
• The tarathe pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aratha and fathinu.
• The aratha trichord is the 1st, the 6th and the 13th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The fathinu trichord is the 15th, the 16th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone 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 itho rhythm is made from two patterns: the etini (considered the primary) and the ile. As stated above, they are to be played in polymeter.
• The etini rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The ile rhythm is a single line with twenty-eight beats divided into seven bars in a 4-4-4-4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named atha (spoken ath), alo (al), aveya (av) and mafina (ma). 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.

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