The Offbeat Prickle-Berries
The Offbeat Prickle-berries is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the goblin Oxoslu Profiteeredenforcement. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a gax and a kan. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance should be made with feeling. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use mordents, syncopate, add fills, modulate frequently and play staccato.
- The gax always provides the rhythm.
- The kan always does the main melody.
- The Offbeat Prickle-berries has the following structure: a theme and a series of variations on the theme.
- The theme is extremely fast, and it is to become louder and louder. The kan stays in the heavy high register. The passage is performed using the ozzok scale.
- The series of variations slows and broadens, and it is to fade into silence. The kan covers its entire range from the sonorous low register to the heavy high register. The passage is performed using the zuxaz scale.
- Scales are constructed from nineteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xx-x-xxxx-xxxxx-xx-xxxxO, 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 masul (spoken ma), axslor (ax), bagurod (ba), sastospu (sa), assna (as), xuzestra (xu) and roxstat (ro).
- The ozzok hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 7th, the 9th, the 13th and the 15th.
- The zuxaz hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 7th, the 10th, the 14th and the 18th.
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