The Lilac Custard-Apple

The Lilac Custard-apple is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Sightless Procedure. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. Three chanters recite nonsensical words and sounds. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed in the op rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use mordents.

• Each chanter always does the main melody, should perform with feeling and plays staccato. The voice uses its entire range.
• The Lilac Custard-apple has the following structure: a passage and another one to two passages.
• The first simple passage is at a walking pace, and it is to fade into silence. The passage is performed using the piaki scale.
• Each of the second simple passages slows and broadens, and it is to be loud. Each passage is performed using the toipe scale.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• The piaki heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named opoq and uki.
• The opoq tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 5th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The uki tetrachord is the 8th, the 9th, the 10th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The toipe heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named if and uok.
• The if tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The uok tetrachord is the 8th, the 9th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The op rhythm is made from two patterns: the oti (considered the primary) and the paciyq. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The oti rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beats are named nuod (spoken nuo), ojip (oj) and qat (qa). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The paciyq rhythm is a single line with twenty-eight beats divided into three bars in a 12-11-5 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 X marks an accented beat, ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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