The Salty Bat-Person

The Salty Bat-person is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Zasled originating in The Episodic Miscreant. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on two eslum. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The entire performance should be made with feeling. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed using the xuzestra scale and in free rhythm.

• The chanter always does harmony and plays staccato.
• Each eslum always does the main melody and plays staccato.
• The Salty Bat-person has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a chorus and a verse, a lengthy bridge-passage and a finale.
• The introduction gradually slows as it comes to an end, and it is to be loud. Each of the eslum stays in the buzzy low register and the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The chorus is slower than the last passage, and it is to be soft. Each of the eslum stays in the ringing high register and the chanter's voice stays in the middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The verse resumes the original tempo, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the eslum ranges from the slicing middle register to the ringing high register and the chanter's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The bridge-passage is fast, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the eslum ranges from the slicing middle register to the ringing high register and the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The finale is at a walking pace, and it is to be soft. Each of the eslum ranges from the slicing middle register to the ringing high register and the chanter's voice stays in the high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• 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.
• 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 zuxaz and axslor.
• The zuxaz tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The axslor tetrachord is the 1st, the 5th, the 7th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

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