The Wholegrain Chestnuts

The Wholegrain Chestnuts is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Bamboo of Enlarging. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a ilireta and a reli. The musical voices bring melody and counterpoint. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the everinopefa scale and in the teze rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to locally improvise and alternate tension and repose.

• The ilireta always does the main melody and should be spirited.
• The reli always does the counterpoint melody and should be delicate.
• The Wholegrain Chestnuts has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a lengthy first theme, an exposition of the first theme, a bridge-passage, a second theme, an exposition of the second theme, a bridge-passage, a synthesis of previous passages, a bridge-passage and a lengthy finale.
• The introduction is moderately fast, and it is to be moderately soft. The reli covers its entire range from the raspy low register to the fragile high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should be performed using trills. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with grace notes and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with rapid runs, arpeggios and legato.
• The first theme is moderately fast, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. The reli stays in the watery middle register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with grace notes, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with arpeggios, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with sharpened seventh degree and sharpened second degree as well as trills, staccato and legato and always include a falling-rising melody pattern with rapid runs, arpeggios and staccato.
• The first exposition is consistently slowing, and it is to be very soft. The reli ranges from the raspy low register to the watery middle register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage should always include a falling melody pattern with flattened sixth degree, sharpened fourth degree and flattened fifth degree as well as glides and grace notes, often include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened second degree on the rise as well as arpeggios and staccato and often include a rising-falling melody pattern with rapid runs.
• The first bridge-passage is fast, and it is to be moderately soft. The reli ranges from the watery middle register to the fragile high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with trills, often include a falling melody pattern with glides, mordents and arpeggios and often include a rising-falling melody pattern with mordents.
• The second theme is at a walking pace, and it is to be loud. The reli covers its entire range from the raspy low register to the fragile high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage should be performed using legato. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with rapid runs, sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened third degree on the fall as well as trills, arpeggios and staccato, always include a rising-falling melody pattern with mordents and often include a rising melody pattern with glides and mordents.
• The second exposition is very slow, and it is to be moderately soft. The reli covers its entire range from the raspy low register to the fragile high register. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage should be performed using trills and legato. The passage should often include a falling-rising melody pattern with mordents and arpeggios.
• The second bridge-passage is slow, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. The reli ranges from the watery middle register to the fragile high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage should always include a falling melody pattern and always include a rising melody pattern with mordents and trills.
• The synthesis is very slow, and it is to become softer and softer. The reli stays in the fragile high register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should be performed using trills. The passage should always include a rising-falling melody pattern with staccato, always include a rising melody pattern with flattened sixth degree as well as legato, often include a falling melody pattern with grace notes, staccato and legato and always include a falling-rising melody pattern with grace notes, arpeggios and legato.
• The third bridge-passage is moderately fast, and it is to be very loud. The reli ranges from the raspy low register to the watery middle register. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should be performed using trills. The passage should often include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree as well as staccato.
• The finale is at a hurried pace, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. The reli ranges from the watery middle register to the fragile high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range. The passage should be performed using trills. The passage should often include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree as well as glides and legato and sometimes include a rising melody pattern.
• 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 everinopefa heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th, the 7th and the 8th.
• The teze rhythm is made from two patterns: the ezococa (considered the primary) and the mila. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• 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.
• The mila rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x |
• where x is a beat and | indicates a bar.

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