The Peduncular Offbeat

The Peduncular Offbeat is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Alone Bib. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on one to five zosh, a cegumat and a oshed. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance should evoke tears. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has long phrases throughout the form. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed using the madensham scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use grace notes, make trills and play staccato.

• Each zosh always does the counterpoint melody.
• The cegumat always provides the rhythm.
• The oshed always does the main melody.
• The Peduncular Offbeat has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a passage and a finale.
• The introduction is consistently slowing, and it is to become softer and softer. The oshed covers its entire range from the reedy low register to the strident high register and each of the zosh stays in the dark low register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should be performed using locally improvisation. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with sharpened third degree, often include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened second degree on the rise, often include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree on the fall as well as arpeggios and legato and always include a rising melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree, sharpened sixth degree and sharpened fifth degree.
• The simple passage is moderately paced, and it is to fade into silence. The oshed stays in the fluid middle register and each of the zosh covers its entire range. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage should be performed using locally improvisation. The passage should sometimes include a rising melody pattern and sometimes include a falling melody pattern with mordents.
• The finale slows and broadens, and it is to be very loud. The oshed covers its entire range from the reedy low register to the strident high register and each of the zosh stays in the dark high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• As always, the madensham hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named kekorith and vazast.
• The kekorith trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The vazast tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

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