The Euphonious Strawberries

The Euphonious Strawberries is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Questionable Riverside. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on two eyedo, a oyifiya and a osani. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed in the tafalofi rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use grace notes, alternate tension and repose and play legato.

• Each eyedo always provides the rhythm, should be graceful and is to be soft.
• The oyifiya always does harmony, should perform sweetly and is to be soft.
• The osani always does the main melody, should bring a sense of motion and is to be very soft.
• The Euphonious Strawberries has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy verse and a chorus all repeated one times, a bridge-passage, a brief verse and a chorus and a coda.
• The first verse is at a free tempo. The oyifiya stays in the wavering high register and each of the eyedo covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the slicing high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed without preference for a scale.
• The first chorus is at a free tempo. The oyifiya stays in the wispy low register and each of the eyedo stays in the slicing high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed using the ithi scale.
• The bridge-passage is fast. The oyifiya stays in the wispy low register and each of the eyedo stays in the wispy low register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage is performed using the mila scale.
• The second verse is at a free tempo. The oyifiya stays in the wavering high register and each of the eyedo covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the slicing high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the umamalu scale.
• The second chorus slows and broadens. The oyifiya covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the wavering high register and each of the eyedo stays in the wispy low register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage is performed without preference for a scale.
• The coda is at a free tempo. The oyifiya covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the wavering high register and each of the eyedo stays in the wispy low register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the emayethi scale.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The ithi hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named oyifolewe and izeli.
• The oyifolewe tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 6th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The izeli trichord is the 8th, the 9th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The mila pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named ipila and izeli.
• The ipila trichord is the 1st, the 3rd and the 6th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The umamalu heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named iwarivuli and bone.
• The iwarivuli tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th and the 6th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The bone tetrachord is the 8th, the 9th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The emayethi heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named iwarivuli and ucame.
• The ucame tetrachord is the 8th, the 9th, the 10th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The tafalofi rhythm is a single line with twenty-seven beats divided into four bars in a 6-9-7-5 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x ! x x | - - - - - - - - x | - x x - x - X | x - x X x |
• where ! marks the primary accent, X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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