The Lilac Satyr

The Lilac Satyr is a devotional form of music originating in The Saltpeter of Rhapsodies. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. Two singers recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a gifathufatha. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is at a hurried pace, and it is to be moderately loud. It is performed using the umamalu scale and in the ocaquica rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use mordents, make trills, play rapid runs and alternate tension and repose.

• Each singer always provides the rhythm and should bring a sense of motion.
• The gifathufatha always does the main melody and should perform with feeling.
• The Lilac Satyr has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction and a chorus and a verse possibly all repeated.
• In the introduction, the gifathufatha covers its entire range from the flat low register to the dull high register and each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
• In the chorus, the gifathufatha ranges from the flat low register to the even middle register and each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage has short phrases in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• In the verse, the gifathufatha stays in the flat low register and each of the singers' voices stays in the middle register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
• 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 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 ocaquica rhythm is made from two patterns: the moro (considered the primary) and the ezococa. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The moro rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• 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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