The Instrumental Song

The Instrumental Song is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Custom of Shoulders. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A speaker recites any composition of The Float of Sploshes while the music is played on a ebkismomut. The musical voices are joined in melody. The entire performance should feel calm, and it is to be in whispered undertones. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use grace notes.

• The ebkismomut always does the main melody. The voice stays in the rugged low register.
• The Instrumental Song has a simple structure: three to four unrelated passages.
• Each of the simple passages is at a walking pace. Each passage is performed using the othdo scale and in the pumdom rhythm.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The othdo pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 6th, the 7th and the 9th.
• The pumdom rhythm is made from two patterns: the uthrogumat (considered the primary) and the furithali. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The uthrogumat rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into four bars in a 4-4-4-4 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - x | x x x x | - - x x | x x x x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The furithali rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named vuthrilsim (spoken vu) and desle (de). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events