The Spelt-Grain of Ginkgo-Seeds
The Spelt-grain of Ginkgo-seeds is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Order of Lofts. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. One to six singers recite any composition of The Flowery Petal while the music is played on three to six dipax and a nijah. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The melody has long phrases throughout the form. The music is broadly layered with chords spanning the range. It is performed using the toipe scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to syncopate.
- Each singer always does the main melody and should be melancholic. The voice stays in the high register.
- Each dipax always does the main melody and should perform with skill.
- The nijah always provides the rhythm and should feel agitated.
- The Spelt-grain of Ginkgo-seeds has a simple structure: three unrelated passages.
- Each of the simple passages is extremely fast, and it is to be soft. Each passage should be performed using mordents.
- Scales are constructed from thirteen notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1-x-x-x--x-x-xx-x-x-xx-xO, 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. Every note is named. The names are axod (spoken ax), uki (uk), uok (uok), ahdid (ah), toki (to), oq (oq), dotip (do), kotoq (ko), kiqo (ki), ituq (it), piaki (pia), edo (ed) and qahpa (qa).
- The toipe hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th, the 7th, the 8th and the 13th.
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