The Songbook of Wine

The Songbook of Wine is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Unheeded Courageous Plump-Helmet-Fungi. 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 meli. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is to become softer and softer. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the oyifolewe scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play rapid runs.

• The singer always should be spirited. The voice stays in the high register.
• The meli always should perform expressively.
• The Songbook of Wine has the following structure: three unrelated passages and a coda.
• Each of the simple passages is voiced by the melody of the meli. Each passage is at a walking pace.
• The coda is voiced by the melody of the singer reciting nonsensical words and sounds and the rhythm of the meli. The passage is at a walking pace.
• Scales are constructed from seventeen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-xxx-x-xx-xxxxxx-x-xxO, 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. Every note is named. The names are ifiyo (spoken if), izeli (iz), bone (bo), umamalu (um), emayethi (em), ithi (ith), seyawi (se), mila (mi), ezococa (ez), ebecari (eb), viceva (vi), moro (mo), wonethu (wo), ocaquica (oc), slothepanine (slo), feri (fe) and uwame (uw).
• The oyifolewe heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 5th, the 7th, the 9th, the 10th and the 15th.

Events