The Melodic Chestnuts
The Melodic Chestnuts is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the dwarf Ekirobeshoth Helmswarbled. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on three exustog and a xus. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should be spirited. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time.
- Each exustog always does the main melody and uses grace notes.
- The xus always provides the rhythm.
- The Melodic Chestnuts has the following structure: an introduction and three to five unrelated passages.
- The introduction gradually slows as it comes to an end, and it is to become louder and louder. Each of the exustog covers its entire range from the slicing low register to the crisp high register. The passage is performed using the sangob scale and in the tasnugmutkud rhythm.
- Each of the simple passages accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. Each of the exustog stays in the crisp high register. Each passage is performed without preference for a scale and in the nexo rhythm.
- Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. 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 obungasnu (spoken ob), strob (stro), kestraruga (ke), dot (do), obst (obst), omuslone (om) and gul (gu).
- The sangob heptatonic scale is thought of as joined chords spanning a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth. These chords are named nadu and roxstat.
- The nadu pentachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th and the 8th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- The roxstat tetrachord is the 8th, the 10th, the 12th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
- The tasnugmutkud rhythm is made from three patterns: the orustrur (considered the primary), the uranstrostru and the reraspog. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
- The orustrur rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into two bars in a 8-8 pattern. The beats are named snas (spoken sna), ulong (ul), exusp (ex), ozu (oz), dusmorabur (du), kulu (ku), doram (do) and ellusmesmuk (el). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - x x X - x - - | - x X x x x - - |
- where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
- The uranstrostru rhythm is a single line with eight beats divided into four bars in a 2-2-2-2 pattern. The beats are named atosmosm (spoken at) and nesu (ne). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x'x'| x x | - 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 reraspog rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beats are named exazgong (spoken ex), alazgo (al) and zesnunsura (ze). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | X`x x'|
- where X marks an accented beat, ` marks a beat as early, ' marks a beat as late, x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
- The nexo rhythm is made from two patterns: the orustrur (considered the primary) and the xedludutoka. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
- The xedludutoka rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named dosno (spoken do) and luz (lu). The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
Events