The Corymb of Buckwheat-Grains

The Corymb of Buckwheat-grains is a devotional form of music originating in The Soybean-Plant of Lobsters. 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 ifave. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the oyifolewe scale and in the slothepanine rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to use mordents, alternate tension and repose and play staccato.

• The ifave always does the main melody and should be grand.
• The Corymb of Buckwheat-grains has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief introduction, a passage, a bridge-passage and a finale.
• The introduction is slow, and it is to be moderately loud. The ifave ranges from the reedy middle register to the muddy high register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage.
• The simple passage is moderately paced, and it is to become louder and louder. The ifave stays in the reedy middle register. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. The passage should be composed and performed using trills.
• The bridge-passage gradually slows as it comes to an end, and it is to become louder and louder. The ifave ranges from the eerie low register to the reedy middle register. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals.
• The finale is moderately paced, and it is to be very loud. The ifave ranges from the reedy middle register to the muddy high register. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-three notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxO, 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. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are ifiyo (spoken if, 4th), izeli (iz, 9th), bone (bo, 10th), umamalu (um, 12th), emayethi (em, 14th), ithi (ith, 15th), seyawi (se, 18th), mila (mi, 20th) and ezococa (ez, 23rd).
• The oyifolewe hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 4th, the 8th, the 13th, the 17th and the 22nd.
• The slothepanine rhythm is a single line with twenty-three beats divided into two bars in a 15-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x - x x - x x - - x - - x | - - - x - x x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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