The Offbeat Roses

The Offbeat Roses is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Curse of Clear-Garnets. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A speaker recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a geslang and a tukxu. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should evoke tears and is very slow. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the obungasnu scale and in the nexo rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to add fills and alternate tension and repose.

• The geslang always does the main melody.
• The tukxu always provides the rhythm.
• The Offbeat Roses has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy theme, a bridge-passage and one to two series of variations on the theme.
• The theme is to be moderately soft. The geslang stays in the vibrating middle register and the tukxu stays in the pure high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The bridge-passage is to become softer and softer. The geslang stays in the raucous high register and the tukxu stays in the dark low register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• Each of the series of variations is to be soft. The geslang stays in the vibrating middle register and the tukxu stays in the pure high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. Each passage should be performed using melismatic phrasing.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are strob (spoken stro) and kestraruga (ke).
• As always, the obungasnu heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ragu and assna.
• The ragu tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The assna tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The nexo rhythm is made from two patterns: the ellusmesmuk and the ozu. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The ellusmesmuk rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named langkaz (spoken la) and reraspog (re). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The ozu rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into four bars in a 4-4-4-4 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x - x | - x x - | - - - x | - x - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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