The Daily Thorn

The Daily Thorn is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Topaq the Thorn of Lanterns originating in The Totem of Raising. 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 oac. The entire performance should be graceful. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed without preference for a scale. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to add fills, alternate tension and repose and play staccato.

• The oac always provides the rhythm.
• The Daily Thorn has the following structure: an introduction and a passage.
• The introduction accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to become softer and softer. The passage is performed in free rhythm.
• The simple passage is at a walking pace, and it is to be soft. The passage is performed in the qapoaq rhythm.
• The qapoaq rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into five bars in a 9-5-7-5-6 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x - x - x x - x'| - - x - - | - - x x x x - | x x - - x | - x x x x - |
• where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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