The Verses of Glittering

The Verses of Glittering is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Kingdom of Faith. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. Three speakers recite any composition of The Curses of Hell while the music is played on a samspi. The musical voices are joined in melody. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed using the rom scale and in the cadem rhythm.

• Each speaker always should be melancholic.
• The samspi always does the main melody, should perform expressively and matches notes and syllables.
• The Verses of Glittering has a well-defined multi-passage structure: three unrelated passages, a bridge-passage and a lengthy finale.
• Each of the simple passages slows and broadens, and it is to become louder and louder. The samspi stays in the fragile low register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The bridge-passage is moderately fast, and it is to be soft. The samspi ranges from the middle register to the high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The finale accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to be very soft. The samspi covers its entire range from the fragile low register to the flat high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• Scales are constructed from twenty notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. After a scale is constructed, notes are named according to degree. The names are dik (spoken di), tunem (tu), ramet (ra), icmon (ic), ozi (oz), stalcon (sta) and nek (ne).
• The rom heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th, the 10th, the 12th, the 16th and the 20th.
• The cadem rhythm is made from two patterns: the kes (considered the primary) and the shato. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The kes rhythm is a single line with twenty-six beats divided into four bars in a 6-5-8-7 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 |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The shato 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 beats are named almef (spoken al), onod (on), osp (osp) and arin (ar). 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 ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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