The Fruitless Pecan

The Fruitless Pecan is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Glamorous Asparagus. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. Three speakers recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a yavafimifafa and a upeve. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is very slow. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents.

• Each speaker always should be fiery.
• The yavafimifafa always does the main melody and should perform expressively. The voice uses its entire range from the liquid low register to the brittle high register.
• The upeve always provides the rhythm and should be broad.
• The Fruitless Pecan has the following structure: a lengthy introduction and three to four unrelated passages.
• The introduction is to be moderately loud. The yavafimifafa covers its entire range from the liquid low register to the brittle high register and the upeve covers its entire range from the muddy low register to the floating high register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. The passage is performed using the acimedewe scale.
• Each of the simple passages is to be soft. The yavafimifafa covers its entire range from the liquid low register to the brittle high register and the upeve ranges from the low register to the middle register. Each passage has short phrases in the melody. Each passage is performed using the fi scale.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The acimedewe hexatonic scale is thought of as joined chords spanning a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth. These chords are named mila and emayethi.
• The mila pentachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 8th, the 10th and the 15th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The emayethi trichord is the 15th, the 17th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The fi scale is thought of as joined chords spanning a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth. These chords are named ebecari and bone.
• The ebecari trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 15th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The bone trichord is the 15th, the 16th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.

Events