The Offbeat Cashew

The Offbeat Cashew is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Cylindrical Entity. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. One to five chanters recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a iyd, a pokoa and two ahdoq. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is very fast. The melody has long phrases, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the ahdid scale. Throughout, when possible, performers are to add fills and play staccato.

• Each chanter always is to start loud then be immediately soft.
• The iyd always is to be very soft and plays arpeggios.
• The pokoa always does the main melody and is to be in whispered undertones.
• Each ahdoq always is to become softer and softer.
• The Offbeat Cashew has the following structure: a theme and one to two series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated.
• The theme is voiced by the melody of the chanters reciting nonsensical words and sounds, the melody of the pokoa, the counterpoint of the ahdoq and the rhythm of the iyd. The passage should be fiery. Each of the chanters' voices stays in the low register and the pokoa covers its entire range from the heavy low register to the focused high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed in the tipoa rhythm.
• Each of the series of variations is voiced by the melody of the iyd, the melody of the pokoa, the harmony of the chanters reciting any composition of The Understanding Monkey-pot and the rhythm of the ahdoq. Each passage should be lively. The pokoa stays in the sweet middle register and each of the chanters' voices ranges from the low register to the middle register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. Each passage is performed in the qapoaq rhythm.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eight notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are dodap (spoken do, 1st), qahpa (qa, 2nd), oqua (oq, 4th) and ej (ej, 8th).
• As always, the ahdid hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named opoq and kopi.
• The opoq trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The kopi tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 6th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The tipoa rhythm is made from two patterns: the jed (considered the primary) and the toad. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
• The jed rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beats are named dokot (spoken do), otep (ot) and qada (qa). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x X x |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
• The toad 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 paciyq (spoken pa) and oaf (oaf). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | - x | - x | - x | x - | - x | - x | x x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The qapoaq rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into two bars in a 8-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - x - - - - - | - - - - x - - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events