The Rhythmic Berries

The Rhythmic Berries is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Bamboo of Enlarging. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a ilireta and two newo. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance gradually slows as it comes to an end. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the izeli scale and in the ezococa rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play rapid runs, alternate tension and repose and play staccato.

• The chanter always does harmony and should be spirited.
• The ilireta always provides the rhythm.
• Each newo always does the main melody and should perform expressively.
• The Rhythmic Berries has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction and a lengthy passage and an additional passage possibly all repeated.
• The introduction is to be moderately soft. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• The first simple passage is to be very loud. The chanter's voice covers its entire range. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The second simple passage is to be soft. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage should be composed and performed using frequent modulation.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x--x-x-x-x-xx-x-x--x-xO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• The izeli pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th, the 7th and the 9th.
• The ezococa rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into four bars in a 4-4-4-4 pattern. The beats are named ebecari (spoken eb), viceva (vi), moro (mo) and wonethu (wo). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x x - | - x - - | - x - - | - x x'- |
• where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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