The Jammy Sheaf

The Jammy Sheaf is a devotional form of music originating in The Unheeded Courageous Plump-Helmet-Fungi. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on two osirimi, a ufiso and three meli. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is very fast. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has long phrases throughout the form. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed using the everinopefa scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to locally improvise and alternate tension and repose. From beginning to end, when improvising, artists should always include a falling melody pattern with arpeggios and often include a falling-rising melody pattern with rapid runs and legato.

• Each osirimi always is to be moderately soft and plays rapid runs. The voice uses its entire range from the raucous low register to the strident high register.
• The ufiso always is to be moderately soft.
• Each meli always is to be loud and plays rapid runs.
• The Jammy Sheaf has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a theme, a lengthy bridge-passage and a series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated, a bridge-passage and a lengthy finale.
• The introduction is voiced by the melody of the ufiso and the rhythm of the meli. The passage should be passionate. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
• The theme is voiced by the melody of the ufiso, the melody of the meli and the harmony of the osirimi. The passage should feel mysterious. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The first bridge-passage is voiced by the melody of the meli and the counterpoint of the osirimi. The passage should be made with feeling. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should be performed using arpeggios.
• The series of variations is voiced by the melody of the osirimi and the harmony of the meli. The passage should be fiery. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should be performed using arpeggios.
• The second bridge-passage is voiced by the melody of the ufiso, the melody of the meli and the harmony of the osirimi. The passage should feel mournful. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• The finale is voiced by the melody of the osirimi, the melody of the meli and the harmony of the ufiso. The passage should be vigorous. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• 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 everinopefa hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th, the 11th, the 14th and the 15th.

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