The Bouquet of Cotton-Seeds

The Bouquet of Cotton-seeds is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Mores of Exhorting. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on a icmonong and a sast. The musical voices are joined in melody. The entire performance should bring a sense of motion, and it is to become louder and louder. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed in free rhythm.

• The icmonong always does the main melody.
• The sast always does the main melody.
• The Bouquet of Cotton-seeds has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction and a theme and a brief series of variations on the theme.
• The introduction is fast. The icmonong covers its entire range and the sast stays in the buzzy high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the mushast scale.
• The theme is moderately paced. The icmonong stays in the muddy high register and the sast stays in the buzzy high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage is performed using the ohural scale.
• The series of variations is extremely fast. The icmonong stays in the muddy high register and the sast stays in the heavy low register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage is performed using the equanamsespe scale.
• Scales are constructed from fifteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-xx-x-x-x-xx-xxx-xx-xO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The mushast pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 6th, the 9th and the 14th.
• The ohural pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 9th, the 10th and the 13th.
• The equanamsespe heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th, the 7th, the 8th, the 12th and the 14th.

Events