The Lilac Plum

The Lilac Plum is a devotional form of music originating in The Harp-Seal of Shying. 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. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the izela scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents.

• The chanter always does the main melody.
• The Lilac Plum has the following structure: three unrelated passages and a coda.
• Each of the simple passages should be made with skill and is extremely fast, and it is to be loud. The chanter's voice stays in the low register.
• The coda should be forceful and becomes frenzied as it proceeds. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register.
• Scales are constructed from fourteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-xx-x-x-x-xxx-x-x-x-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 izela hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th, the 8th, the 10th and the 11th.

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