The Fruitful Fir-Cone
The Fruitful Fir-cone is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Race of Speech. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. One to six singers recite The Heroism of Elevation while the music is played on a xuthi and a rama. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is at a free tempo. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose and modulate frequently.
- Each singer always should feel mysterious.
- The xuthi always should be broad.
- The rama always provides the rhythm and should be fiery.
- The Fruitful Fir-cone has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, an exposition of the theme, a bridge-passage, a recapitulation of the theme and a finale.
- The theme is voiced by the melody of the singers, the counterpoint of the xuthi and the rhythm of the rama. The passage is to be moderately soft. Each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register and the xuthi stays in the muddy high register. The passage is performed using the furithali scale and in free rhythm.
- The exposition is voiced by the melody of the singers, the harmony of the xuthi and the rhythm of the rama. The passage is to be moderately loud. Each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register and the xuthi stays in the muddy low register. The passage is performed without preference for a scale and in free rhythm.
- The bridge-passage is voiced by the melody of the xuthi, the counterpoint of the singers and the rhythm of the rama. The passage is to be moderately loud. The xuthi stays in the muddy high register and each of the singers' voices ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage is performed without preference for a scale and in the oquil rhythm.
- The recapitulation is voiced by the melody of the singers, the harmony of the xuthi and the rhythm of the rama. The passage is to be moderately soft. Each of the singers' voices ranges from the low register to the middle register and the xuthi ranges from the watery middle register to the muddy high register. The passage is performed using the shudash scale and in the uthrogumat rhythm.
- The finale is voiced by the melody of the xuthi, the counterpoint of the singers and the rhythm of the rama. The passage is to be moderately loud. The xuthi ranges from the muddy low register to the watery middle register and each of the singers' voices covers its entire range. The passage is performed using the furithali scale and in free 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. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are desle (spoken de) and pethrebinpu (pe).
- As always, the furithali hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named oxuskor and uwakri.
- The oxuskor trichord is the 1st, the 3rd and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The uwakri tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- As always, the shudash hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named mushast and uwakri.
- The mushast trichord is the 1st, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
- The oquil rhythm is a single line with twenty beats divided into five bars in a 4-4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named bokem (spoken bo), inal (in), warosp (wa) and vope (vo). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - - - | - - x - | x - - - | x ! - x | x - X x |
- where ! marks the primary accent, X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
- The uthrogumat rhythm is a single line with eight beats divided into two bars in a 4-4 pattern. The beats are named sorot (spoken so), pumdom (pu), dos (do) and aheda (ah). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - - - x | - - - x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
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