The Wholegrain Tones

The Wholegrain Tones is a devotional form of music originating in The Doorstop of Spiny-Dogfishes. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds. The entire performance is at a free tempo. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the anon scale.

• The chanter always does the main melody and should stress the rhythm.
• The Wholegrain Tones has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy chorus and a verse, a lengthy bridge-passage, a verse and a chorus and a coda.
• The first chorus is to be loud. The chanter's voice covers its entire range. The passage is performed in the nebulursed rhythm.
• The first verse is to become softer and softer. The chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage is performed in the rokul rhythm.
• The bridge-passage is to become louder and louder. The chanter's voice covers its entire range. The passage is performed in free rhythm.
• The second verse is to be in whispered undertones. The chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage is performed in the elomamar rhythm.
• The second chorus is to be soft. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register. The passage is performed in the sak rhythm.
• The coda is to be soft. The chanter's voice stays in the middle register. The passage is performed in the nebulursed rhythm.
• Scales are constructed from fourteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-x-x-x-xx-xx-x-xx-x-xO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. After a scale is constructed, notes are named according to degree. The names are vazast (spoken va), mudesod (mu), liloran (li), toker (to), madensham (ma), imkekir (imk) and rekom (re).
• The anon hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 7th, the 8th, the 9th and the 10th.
• The nebulursed rhythm is made from two patterns: the tamosh and the lesul. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
• The tamosh rhythm is a single line with seven beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - - - - x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The lesul rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x'x x |
• where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
• The rokul rhythm is made from two patterns: the lesul and the ozol. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
• The ozol rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beats are named mer (spoken me), zulal (zu) and kistek (ki). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x'x |
• where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
• The elomamar rhythm is made from two patterns: the ozisash and the tamosh. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
• The ozisash rhythm is a single line with eight beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x'x`- - - - |
• where ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The sak rhythm is made from two patterns: the tamosh and the lesul. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.

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