The Intricacy of Flutes

The Intricacy of Flutes is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Disloyalty of Crypts. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a gasnasp and a osmlo. The musical voices bring melody and counterpoint. The entire performance should bring a sense of motion. The melody has long phrases, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed without preference for a scale and in the nol rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to make trills.

• The gasnasp always does the main melody. The voice stays in the watery low register.
• The osmlo always does the counterpoint melody.
• The Intricacy of Flutes has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme and a series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated and a finale.
• The theme is fast, and it is to be very soft. The gasnasp stays in the watery low register and the osmlo covers its entire range. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The series of variations is very slow, and it is to become louder and louder. The gasnasp stays in the watery low register and the osmlo stays in the dark high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The finale accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to be very loud. The gasnasp stays in the watery low register and the osmlo stays in the dark high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• 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 nol rhythm is made from two patterns: the sasne and the odu. As stated above, they are to be played in polymeter.
• The sasne rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into six bars in a 6-5-8-6-2-5 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 |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The odu rhythm is a single line with seven beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - x - x x x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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