The Ripe Sprig

The Ripe Sprig is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Beak-Dog of Dregs. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on a erxud and a exsta. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is to be very loud. It is performed using the assna scale and in the uranstrostru rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents.

• The erxud always does the main melody and should be forceful.
• The exsta always provides the rhythm and should be spirited.
• The Ripe Sprig has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, an exposition of the theme, a lengthy bridge-passage and a lengthy recapitulation of the theme.
• The theme slows and broadens. The erxud ranges from the watery middle register to the raspy high register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• The exposition is consistently slowing. The erxud ranges from the watery middle register to the fragile top register. The passage has phrases of varied length in the melody. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage.
• The bridge-passage is at a hurried pace. The erxud ranges from the strident low register to the watery middle register. The passage has long phrases in the melody. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The recapitulation is moderately fast. The erxud is confined to the fragile top register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. This passage typically has some sparse chords.
• Scales are conceived of as two chords built using a division of the perfect fourth interval into eleven notes. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are tekug (spoken te, 1st) and barulo (ba, 9th).
• As always, the assna hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named nadu and masul.
• The nadu tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The masul trichord is the 1st, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The uranstrostru rhythm is made from two patterns: the obst and the luz.
• The obst rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beats are named omuslone (spoken om), gul (gu), xedludutoka (xe) and dosno (do). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x - - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The luz rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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