The Nutty Blossom

The Nutty Blossom is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Straight Byword. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites any composition of The Rational Brains while the music is played on a gah and a monem. The musical voices bring melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The entire performance is at a free tempo. The counterpoint melody has long phrases throughout the form. Never more than an interval sounds at once. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed using the xathrato scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to match notes and syllables.

• The chanter always provides the rhythm and should be passionate.
• The gah always does the main melody and should feel agitated.
• The monem always does the counterpoint melody and should be delicate.
• The Nutty Blossom has the following structure: a theme and one to two series of variations on the theme.
• The theme is to be moderately loud. The gah covers its entire range from the wavering low register to the breezy high register and the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage has short phrases in the melody.
• Each of the series of variations is to be in whispered undertones. The gah stays in the breezy high register and the chanter's voice covers its entire range. Each passage has long phrases in the melody.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. Every note is named. The names are pumdom (spoken pu), dos (do), aheda (ah), ofing (of), ujel (uj), bushcirne (bu), emsor (ems), naccak (na), vishages (vi), kungujith (ku) and udal (ud).
• As always, the xathrato heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named mushast and ithut.
• The mushast tetrachord is the 1st, the 6th, the 8th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The ithut tetrachord is the 1st, the 4th, the 6th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.

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