The Carmine Tress
The Carmine Tress is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the elf Ova Beachglimmered. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a icithi, a mirise and a fetha. The music is melody and rhythm without harmony. The entire performance is slow, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to add fills.
- The icithi always does the main melody and should feel mysterious. The voice uses its entire range from the wispy low register to the sparkling high register.
- The mirise always does the main melody, should feel mysterious, modulates frequently and plays arpeggios. The voice uses its entire range from the strident low register to the shrill high register.
- The fetha always provides the rhythm and should perform with feeling. The voice uses its entire range from the fragile low register to the watery high register.
- The Carmine Tress has a simple structure: a passage.
- The simple passage is performed using the warere scale.
- Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes dividing the octave. In quartertones, their spacing is roughly 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxO, where 1 is the tonic, O marks the octave and x marks other notes. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student. After a scale is constructed, notes are named according to degree. The names are fathinu (spoken fa), thili (thi), fomire (fo), fela (fe), aweme (aw) and yaniye (ya).
- The warere 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 16th and the 23rd.
Events