The Cotton-Seed of Kernels

The Cotton-seed of Kernels is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Splattered Orcas. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A speaker recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a oyali and a uwaredo. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The entire performance is at a hurried pace, and it is to be moderately soft. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the izela scale and in the cowe rhythm.

• The oyali always does harmony and plays staccato.
• The uwaredo always does the main melody and glides from note to note.
• The Cotton-seed of Kernels has the following structure: one to two passages and another one to two passages.
• Each of the first simple passages should be made with feeling. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• Each of the second simple passages should be lively. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• Scales are constructed from seventeen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xx-xx-x-x-xxx-xx-xxxxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The izela hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 6th, the 10th, the 13th and the 16th.
• The cowe rhythm is made from two patterns: the ucame and the mila. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The ucame rhythm is a single line with twenty-four beats divided into eight bars in a 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - 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 mila rhythm is a single line with eight beats divided into four bars in a 2-2-2-2 pattern. 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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