The Lyrics of Style

The Lyrics of Style is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Fortunate Confederacy. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites any composition of The Mysterious Deep. The entire performance is to be soft. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the nithros scale. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play staccato.

• The singer always does the main melody and should evoke tears.
• The Lyrics of Style has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief introduction and a brief theme and one to two series of variations on the theme.
• The introduction is moderately fast. The singer's voice covers its entire range. The passage is performed in the osp rhythm. The passage should be composed and performed using trills.
• The theme slows and broadens. The singer's voice covers its entire range. The passage is performed in the nek rhythm. The passage should be composed and performed using trills.
• Each of the series of variations is moderately fast. The singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. Each passage is performed in free rhythm.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-one notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxx-xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxO, 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 nithros pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 14th, the 16th and the 21st.
• 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 osp rhythm is made from two patterns: the othag and the icmon.
• The othag rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x`|
• where ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The icmon rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named ozi (spoken oz) and stalcon (sta). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The nek rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named lastta (spoken la) and cish (ci). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x |
• where x is a beat and | indicates a bar.

Events