The Peduncular Fonio-Grain

The Peduncular Fonio-grain is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Saltpeter of Rhapsodies. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a rinulasa. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to be very loud. It is performed in the ezococa rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use mordents, play legato and freely adjust the beats.

• The singer always does the main melody and should be fiery.
• The rinulasa always provides the rhythm and should be fiery.
• The Peduncular Fonio-grain has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a theme and a series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated and a finale.
• In the introduction, the singer's voice covers its entire range and the rinulasa ranges from the strained middle register to the wispy top register. The passage has short phrases in the melody. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the iwarivuli scale.
• In the theme, the singer's voice covers its entire range and the rinulasa ranges from the strained middle register to the strident high register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the oyifolewe scale.
• In the series of variations, the singer's voice covers its entire range and the rinulasa is confined to the strident high register. The passage has short phrases in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the umamalu scale.
• In the finale, the singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register and the rinulasa is confined to the wispy top register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the bone scale. The passage should be performed using locally improvisation. The passage should often include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides, always include a falling melody pattern with sharpened seventh degree as well as grace notes and rapid runs, always include a rising melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree, sharpened second degree and flattened fifth degree as well as glides, rapid runs and arpeggios and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened seventh degree on the fall as well as grace notes, trills, arpeggios and staccato.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-two notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxxxxxxx-x-xxxxxxxxxxxxO, 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. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are emayethi (spoken em) and ithi (ith).
• The iwarivuli heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 7th, the 8th, the 13th, the 16th and the 20th.
• The oyifolewe pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 6th, the 10th, the 14th and the 21st.
• The umamalu heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th, the 10th, the 14th, the 17th and the 18th.
• The bone heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 7th, the 10th, the 11th, the 17th and the 19th.
• The ezococa rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named ebecari (spoken eb) and viceva (vi). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x |
• where x is a beat and | indicates a bar.

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