The Musicianly Prickle-Berry
The Musicianly Prickle-berry is a devotional form of music originating in The Lawmaker of Peanuts. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a sorvengu, one to three xahdessablos and three quislerocu. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance should be made sweetly. The melody has long phrases, while the counterpoint has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed without preference for a scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to locally improvise and play arpeggios.
- The Musicianly Prickle-berry has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy introduction and a passage and another one to two passages possibly all repeated.
- The introduction is voiced by the melody of the singer reciting any composition of The Emerald Tetrahedrite and the counterpoint of the xahdessablos. The passage is moderately paced, and it is to be soft. The singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register and each of the xahdessablos covers its entire range from the crisp low register to the piercing high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
- The first simple passage is voiced by the melody of the xahdessablos and the rhythm of the quislerocu. The passage is moderately paced, and it is to fade into silence. Each of the xahdessablos ranges from the crisp low register to the delicate middle register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
- Each of the second simple passages is voiced by the melody of the xahdessablos, the counterpoint of the singer reciting nonsensical words and sounds, the rhythm of the sorvengu and the rhythm of the quislerocu. Each passage is twice the tempo of the last passage, and it is to become softer and softer. Each of the xahdessablos ranges from the crisp low register to the delicate middle register and the singer's voice covers its entire range. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
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