The Satyric Monkey-Pot

The Satyric Monkey-pot is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Bottomless Geyser. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a nenuse, a rala and a amathi. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is very slow, and it is to be soft. The melody and counterpoint both have mid-length phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed using the everinopefa scale and in the cowe rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to play rapid runs.

• The nenuse always does the main melody, should perform expressively and uses mordents.
• The rala always should feel mournful. The voice uses its entire range from the muddy low register to the raucous high register.
• The amathi always should stress the rhythm.
• The Satyric Monkey-pot has the following structure: an introduction and three to four unrelated passages.
• The introduction is voiced by the melody of the nenuse, the counterpoint of the rala and the counterpoint of the amathi.
• Each of the simple passages is voiced by the melody of the nenuse, the harmony of the amathi and the rhythm of the rala.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The everinopefa heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named oyifolewe and bone.
• The oyifolewe tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The bone tetrachord is the 15th, the 18th, the 19th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The cowe rhythm is a single line with twenty-three beats divided into four bars in a 7-3-5-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - X x x - - - | x - x | x - X x x | x 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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