The White-Chalcedony Swan-Person

The White-chalcedony Swan-person is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Murida Green-jadehelmet-snake the Dirty Silvery-gibbon originating in The Moldy Bitter-Melon-Leaf. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a tafifi, a toslo and a terisido. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance should be made with feeling, and it is to be very loud. The melody and counterpoint both have phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed using the ipila scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to play rapid runs and alternate tension and repose.

• The terisido always does the main melody.
• The White-chalcedony Swan-person has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy introduction and one to two passages and another one to two passages possibly all repeated.
• The introduction is voiced by the melody of the toslo, the melody of the terisido, the counterpoint of the chanter reciting nonsensical words and sounds and the harmony of the tafifi. The passage accelerates as it proceeds. The chanter's voice stays in the low register and the tafifi stays in the strained high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• Each of the first simple passages is voiced by the melody of the terisido and the counterpoint of the toslo. Each passage is moderately paced. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• Each of the second simple passages is voiced by the melody of the toslo, the melody of the terisido, the harmony of the tafifi and the rhythm of the chanter reciting nonsensical words and sounds. Each passage slows and broadens. The tafifi ranges from the wispy middle register to the strained high register and the chanter's voice stays in the high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• Scales are constructed from twenty notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-xxxxxxxx-x-xxxxx-xxxxxO, 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. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are ifiyo (spoken if, 2nd), izeli (iz, 3rd), bone (bo, 5th), umamalu (um, 6th), emayethi (em, 7th), ithi (ith, 16th) and seyawi (se, 19th).
• The ipila pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 10th, the 12th and the 18th.

Events