The Ripe Nut

The Ripe Nut is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Chromite of Loyalty. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on two imtabler and a ovot. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance should be made with skill, and it is to be moderately soft. The melody has phrases of varied length, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed in the comthad rhythm.

• The chanter always does the main melody.
• Each imtabler always does the counterpoint melody.
• The ovot always provides the rhythm.
• The Ripe Nut has the following structure: three to five unrelated passages and a lengthy finale.
• Each of the simple passages is very fast. The chanter's voice stays in the high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. Each passage is performed using the kam scale.
• The finale is moderately paced. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed without preference for a scale. The passage should be performed using glides.
• Scales are constructed from eighteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxxx-x-x-x-xxxxxx-x-xxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• The kam heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th, the 8th, the 10th, the 11th and the 12th.
• The comthad rhythm is made from two patterns: the stat and the vazast. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The stat rhythm is a single line with eight beats divided into four bars in a 2-2-2-2 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | x x | x x | - x`|
• where ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The vazast rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named mudesod (spoken mu) and liloran (li). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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