The Offbeat Grain

The Offbeat Grain is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Intrinsic Hemp-Stalk. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites any composition of The Reason of Educabilities while the music is played on a onu and two sadi. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The melody has long phrases, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. The music is broadly layered with chords spanning the range.

• The singer always should evoke tears and glides from note to note.
• The onu always should bring a sense of motion.
• Each sadi always should evoke tears.
• The Offbeat Grain has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction and a passage and another one to two passages possibly all repeated.
• The introduction is voiced by the melody of the sadi, the counterpoint of the onu and the rhythm of the singer. The passage is fast, and it is to fade into silence. The onu covers its entire range from the wispy low register to the strident high register and the singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage is performed using the ithi scale and in free rhythm. The passage should be performed using frequent modulation.
• The first simple passage is voiced by the melody of the sadi and the rhythm of the onu. The passage is very fast, and it is to be in whispered undertones. The onu stays in the wispy low register. The passage is performed using the mila scale and in the recileli rhythm.
• Each of the second simple passages is voiced by the melody of the singer, the counterpoint of the onu and the counterpoint of the sadi. Each passage is consistently slowing, and it is to be loud. The singer's voice stays in the middle register and the onu stays in the wispy low register. Each passage is performed using the viceva scale and in the imaretha rhythm.
• 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 ithi hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named izela and ucame.
• The izela trichord is the 1st, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The ucame tetrachord is the 1st, the 5th, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• As always, the mila hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named oyifolewe and bone.
• The oyifolewe trichord is the 1st, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The bone tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 8th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• As always, the viceva pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named izela and ifiyo.
• The ifiyo trichord is the 1st, the 9th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The recileli rhythm is made from two patterns: the ebalo and the kecace. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The ebalo rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into four bars in a 8-8-8-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | X x - - - - - x | - - X x - x - - | x x - - X x - - | - - x - X - x - |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The kecace rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The imaretha rhythm is made from two patterns: the ebalo and the kecace. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.

Events