The Fragrance of Silk

The Fragrance of Silk is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Hale Field. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on three lethathi, a aro, a ipivi and a ela. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is slow. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the datha scale and in the amama rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose.

• Each lethathi always does harmony and should be broad.
• The aro always provides the rhythm and should perform sweetly.
• The ipivi always does the main melody and should evoke tears.
• The ela always does the main melody and should be graceful.
• The Fragrance of Silk has the following structure: a lengthy verse and a chorus all repeated two times.
• The verse is to fade into silence. The ipivi stays in the piercing high register, the ela stays in the floating low register and each of the lethathi stays in the muddy high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage should be composed and performed using glides.
• The chorus is to fade into silence. The ipivi covers its entire range from the ringing low register to the piercing high register, the ela stays in the floating middle register and each of the lethathi covers its entire range from the rippling low register to the muddy high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
• Scales are constructed from seventeen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xxxx-x-x-x-xxx-xxxx-xxO, 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.
• The datha heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 5th, the 7th, the 9th, the 11th and the 13th.
• The rhythm system is fundamentally polyrhythmic. There are always multiple rhythm lines, and each of their bars is played over the same period of time, regardless of the number of beats. The rhythm lines are thought of as one, without a primary-subordinate relationship, though individual lines can be named.
• 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 amama rhythm is made from two patterns: the fela and the datome. As stated above, they are to be played in polyrhythm.
• The fela rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The datome rhythm is a single line with eight beats. The beats are named lari (spoken la), aratha (ar), imeri (im), thuna (thu), fidale (fi), tarathe (ta), cuthefi (cu) and cede (ce). 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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