The Coati of Giants

The Coati of Giants is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Urkul originating in The Custom of Shoulders. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites any composition of The Float of Sploshes while the music is played on a hideng. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should evoke tears, and it is to be very loud. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the oxuskor scale and in the pumdom rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play rapid runs, locally improvise and alternate tension and repose. From beginning to end, when improvising or composing, artists should sometimes include a rising melody pattern with grace notes, mordents and legato.

• The singer always provides the rhythm.
• The hideng always does the main melody.
• The Coati of Giants has the following structure: a theme and a lengthy series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated.
• The theme is slow. The hideng stays in the even high register and the singer's voice stays in the middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage should be composed and performed using mordents.
• The series of variations is at a walking pace. The hideng stays in the even middle register and the singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The oxuskor hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 5th, the 6th, the 9th and the 11th.
• 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.

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