The Widower of Hyenas

The Widower of Hyenas is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Desna Seancemaggots originating in The Immortal Savagery. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. Two chanters recite any composition of The Cemetery of Starvation while the music is played on a xusta and a esrussloslok. The musical voices join in melody, counterpoint and harmony. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the assna scale. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to locally improvise and spread syllables over many notes. From beginning to end, when improvising or composing, artists should always include a rising melody pattern with glides, grace notes, trills, rapid runs and legato and always include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened sixth degree on the fall as well as rapid runs. The voice uses its entire range from the heavy low register to the strident high register.

• The Widower of Hyenas has the following structure: three to four unrelated passages and a brief finale.
• Each of the simple passages is voiced by the melody of the xusta, the counterpoint of the esrussloslok and the harmony of the chanters. Each passage should be made with feeling and gradually slows as it comes to an end, and it is to be very soft. The xusta covers its entire range from the heavy low register to the strident high register and each of the chanters' voices covers its entire range. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. Each passage is performed in the doram rhythm.
• The finale is voiced by the melody of the chanters. The passage should be stately and is at a walking pace, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the chanters' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed in the dusmorabur rhythm.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eight notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• As always, the assna heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named ozzok and masul.
• The ozzok tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The masul tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 6th and the 8th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The doram rhythm is made from two patterns: the odo (considered the primary) and the ulong. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The odo rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into eight bars in a 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named sangob (spoken sa), obungasnu (ob), strob (stro) and kestraruga (ke). 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 is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The ulong rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x x |
• where x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
• The dusmorabur rhythm is made from two patterns: the dot (considered the primary) and the snas. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The dot rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into eight bars in a 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named obst (spoken obst), omuslone (om), gul (gu) and xedludutoka (xe). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x - | x x x x | x - - x | x x x x | - x - - | - x x - | - - x x | - - - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The snas rhythm is a single line with eighteen beats divided into four bars in a 5-2-5-6 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - x x - | x - | x x x x x | - - - - x x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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