The Musical Tomato

The Musical Tomato is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Coati of Shedding. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a ikeciseli, one to four lamaceverala and a apanamu. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed using the ithi scale. Throughout, when possible, performers are to locally improvise, alternate tension and repose, modulate frequently and play staccato.

• The ikeciseli always does the main melody, should perform with feeling and is to be moderately soft.
• Each lamaceverala always does harmony, should stress the rhythm and is to be in whispered undertones.
• The apanamu always does the main melody, should be graceful and is to be very soft.
• The Musical Tomato has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a lengthy chorus and a lengthy verse all repeated one times, a lengthy bridge-passage and a verse and a chorus.
• The first chorus is very slow. The ikeciseli ranges from the watery middle register to the strident high register, the apanamu stays in the floating low register and each of the lamaceverala ranges from the dull middle register to the warm high register. The passage is performed in the ocaquica rhythm. The passage should often include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree on the fall as well as legato, always include a rising melody pattern with mordents and always include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree and flattened third degree as well as arpeggios.
• The first verse is at a free tempo. The ikeciseli stays in the eerie low register, the apanamu covers its entire range and each of the lamaceverala ranges from the dull middle register to the warm high register. The passage is performed in the bolo rhythm. The passage should always include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides, grace notes, rapid runs and legato, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with glides and trills, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with glides and grace notes and often include a falling melody pattern with glides and grace notes.
• The bridge-passage is at a hurried pace. The ikeciseli stays in the watery middle register, the apanamu covers its entire range and each of the lamaceverala ranges from the dull middle register to the warm high register. The passage is performed in the owika rhythm. The passage should sometimes include a rising melody pattern with flattened third degree as well as glides, grace notes and rapid runs.
• The second verse slows and broadens. The ikeciseli ranges from the eerie low register to the watery middle register, the apanamu covers its entire range and each of the lamaceverala ranges from the dull middle register to the warm high register. The passage is performed in free rhythm. The passage should often include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides, trills and legato, often include a rising melody pattern with trills and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with grace notes, trills and rapid runs.
• The second chorus is at a free tempo. The ikeciseli ranges from the watery middle register to the strident high register, the apanamu stays in the floating high register and each of the lamaceverala covers its entire range from the nasal low register to the warm high register. The passage is performed in the oyathu rhythm. The passage should often include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree and sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree on the fall and flattened fourth degree on the fall.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
• The ithi hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named ifiyo and izeli.
• The ifiyo tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The izeli trichord is the 15th, the 23rd and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The ocaquica rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beats are named slothepanine (spoken slo), feri (fe), uwame (uw) and cucecuse (cu). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x`x - |
• where ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The bolo rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into four bars in a 8-8-8-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - x X x - x | - x x - x x'x X'| x - - x x - X - | - - - - - - - x |
• where X marks an accented beat, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The owika rhythm is made from two patterns: the cowe (considered the primary) and the fewiyo. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The cowe rhythm is a single line with eight beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - - x X`- x - |
• where X marks an accented beat, ` marks a beat as early, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The fewiyo rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The oyathu rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named slutha (spoken slu) and yalona (ya). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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