The Chant of Lentils

The Chant of Lentils is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Faded Petticoat. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites any composition of The Dates of Understanding. The entire performance is at a free tempo. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the kam scale and in the rokul rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to glide from note to note, play rapid runs and match notes and syllables.

• The chanter always does the main melody and should feel agitated. The voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
• The Chant of Lentils has the following structure: an introduction and three to four unrelated passages.
• The introduction is to be moderately soft.
• Each of the simple passages is to be loud.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-three notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The kam pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 6th, the 11th, the 17th and the 23rd.
• The rokul rhythm is made from two patterns: the un (considered the primary) and the lesul. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The un rhythm is a single line with eighteen beats divided into six bars in a 3-3-3-3-3-3 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - 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 lesul rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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