The Offbeat Bananas

The Offbeat Bananas is a devotional form of music originating in The Heart of Dripping. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds. The entire performance is to become softer and softer. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the ibalarek scale and in the sorot rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose.

• The singer always does the main melody and should perform with feeling.
• The Offbeat Bananas has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief introduction, a first theme, a brief exposition of the first theme, a bridge-passage, a second theme, a lengthy exposition of the second theme, a synthesis of previous passages and a coda.
• The introduction is moderately paced. The singer's voice covers its entire range.
• The first theme is twice the tempo of the last passage. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage should be composed and performed using locally improvisation. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree, flattened fourth degree and sharpened seventh degree as well as mordents, rapid runs, staccato and legato, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with flattened seventh degree on the rise as well as glides and staccato, sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides, grace notes, trills, rapid runs, arpeggios and legato and always include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree as well as glides, grace notes and arpeggios.
• The first exposition is at a free tempo. The singer's voice covers its entire range. The passage should be composed and performed using glides and legato.
• The bridge-passage is slower than the last passage. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
• The second theme is very slow. The singer's voice stays in the low register.
• The second exposition moves more quickly than the last passage. The singer's voice stays in the middle register. The passage should be composed and performed using locally improvisation and legato. The passage should always include a falling melody pattern, always include a rising-falling melody pattern with mordents and rapid runs, always include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened seventh degree on the fall as well as grace notes, trills and staccato and often include a rising melody pattern with flattened third degree as well as mordents, trills and arpeggios.
• The synthesis is at a free tempo. The singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage should be composed and performed using locally improvisation. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with legato, often include a rising melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree as well as legato, often include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened fifth degree on the fall as well as mordents, trills and arpeggios and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened second degree on the fall as well as legato.
• The coda is slower than the last passage. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
• 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 ibalarek heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named oxuskor and oruslumcopo.
• The oxuskor tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 8th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The oruslumcopo tetrachord is the 1st, the 6th, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The sorot rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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