The Satyric Songbook

The Satyric Songbook is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Liberty of Lieges. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. Two singers recite any composition of The Architect-Credence of Natters while the music is played on three odi and a op. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance should feel mysterious and is at a hurried pace. The melody and counterpoint both have phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed using the ituq scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to alternate tension and repose. The voice uses its entire range.

• The Satyric Songbook has the following structure: one to two passages and an additional passage possibly all repeated.
• Each of the first simple passages is voiced by the melody of the op, the counterpoint of the odi and the rhythm of the singers. Each passage is to fade into silence. Each of the odi covers its entire range from the fragile low register to the raspy high register and each of the singers' voices covers its entire range. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• The second simple passage is voiced by the melody of the singers, the melody of the odi and the counterpoint of the op. The passage is to become louder and louder. Each of the singers' voices covers its entire range and each of the odi stays in the raspy high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. Every note is named. The names are piaki (spoken pia), edo (ed), dodap (do), qahpa (qa), oqua (oq), ej (ej), at (at), iadok (iad), poqin (po), oti (ot) and nuod (nuo).
• As always, the ituq hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named kiteq and uki.
• The kiteq trichord is the 1st, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The uki tetrachord is the 1st, the 7th, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

Events