The Nutty Bambara-Groundnut

The Nutty Bambara-groundnut is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Ravager of Dikes. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on three asmong and a mabu. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The melody and counterpoint both have short phrases throughout the form. The music is broadly layered with chords spanning the range. It is performed using the xuzestra scale and in the dusmorabur rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to glide from note to note, use grace notes, use mordents, make trills and alternate tension and repose.

• The singer always does the counterpoint melody and should evoke tears.
• Each asmong always does the main melody and should perform with feeling.
• The mabu always provides the rhythm and should perform with feeling.
• The Nutty Bambara-groundnut has the following structure: one to two passages and another one to two brief passages.
• Each of the first simple passages slows and broadens, and it is to fade into silence. Each of the asmong stays in the floating middle register and the singer's voice covers its entire range. Each passage should be performed using locally improvisation. Each passage should often include a falling melody pattern with rapid runs.
• Each of the second simple passages is very fast, and it is to become louder and louder. Each of the asmong covers its entire range and the singer's voice stays in the high register.
• 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.
• As always, the xuzestra heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named nadu and masul.
• The nadu tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The masul tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The dusmorabur rhythm is made from two patterns: the kestraruga and the gul. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The kestraruga rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beats are named dot (spoken do), obst (obst) and omuslone (om). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The gul rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into eight bars in a 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 pattern. The beats are named xedludutoka (spoken xe) and dosno (do). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x | x - | - x | x x | - x | x - | x x | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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