The Offbeat Wreath

The Offbeat Wreath is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Fleeting-Unification of Musing. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A speaker recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on a awliroz and a stur. The musical voices are joined in melody. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the sorot scale and in the wut rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents and alternate tension and repose.

• The speaker always should be melancholic.
• The awliroz always does the main melody and should be fiery.
• The stur always does the main melody and should be fiery.
• The Offbeat Wreath has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction, a lengthy theme and a brief series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated, a lengthy bridge-passage and a lengthy finale.
• The introduction accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to be moderately soft. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The theme is moderately paced, and it is to be soft. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The series of variations moves more quickly than the last passage, and it is to be very loud. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The bridge-passage resumes the original tempo, and it is to be moderately soft. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage should be composed and performed using staccato.
• The finale is at a free tempo, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. 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. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are pumdom (spoken pu, 2nd) and dos (do, 8th).
• The sorot hexatonic scale is thought of as joined chords spanning a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth. These chords are named othdo and xathrato.
• The othdo pentachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th, the 5th and the 8th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The xathrato trichord is the 8th, the 12th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The wut rhythm is made from two patterns: the naccak and the bokem. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The naccak rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The bokem rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beats are named inal (spoken in) and warosp (wa). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x'- | - x |
• where ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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