The Messiahs of Ceding

The Messiahs of Ceding is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Slomka originating in The Diagonal Sea-Monster. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites any composition of The Philosophical Passion-Fruit while the music is played on a aspsagu and a abam. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance accelerates as it proceeds, and it is to become softer and softer. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to glide from note to note and locally improvise.

• The chanter always does the main melody and plays staccato.
• The aspsagu always provides the rhythm.
• The abam always does the main melody.
• The Messiahs of Ceding has the following structure: a chorus and a verse all repeated one times.
• In the chorus, the chanter's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage is performed using the daxst scale. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with arpeggios, staccato and legato, often include a rising-falling melody pattern with arpeggios and sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened second degree on the rise as well as staccato.
• In the verse, the chanter's voice stays in the middle register. The passage is performed using the axslor scale. The passage should always include a rising-falling melody pattern with flattened fifth degree on the fall as well as grace notes and trills, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with flattened third degree as well as mordents, trills and legato, always include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened fifth degree on the rise and flattened third degree on the fall as well as arpeggios and legato and sometimes include a falling melody pattern with mordents, trills, rapid runs and arpeggios.
• Scales are constructed from eighteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1x-xxx-xx-x-xxxxxx-xx-xxO, 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 bagurod (spoken ba), sastospu (sa), assna (as), xuzestra (xu), roxstat (ro), tekug (te) and odo (od).
• The daxst heptatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th, the 7th, the 9th, the 10th and the 13th.
• The axslor pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 6th, the 7th, the 13th and the 18th.

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