The Lark of Smiles
The Lark of Smiles is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the elf Thaci Fellglitters. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. The music is played on a mirise and a fetha. The musical voices bring melody and counterpoint. The entire performance is consistently slowing. The counterpoint melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the eyo scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to make trills, play rapid runs and alternate tension and repose.
- The mirise always does the counterpoint melody and should be delicate. The voice uses its entire range from the strident low register to the shrill high register.
- The fetha always does the main melody, should be stately and plays staccato.
- The Lark of Smiles has the following structure: three unrelated passages and a lengthy finale.
- Each of the simple passages is to be moderately loud. The fetha stays in the watery high register and the mirise covers its entire range from the strident low register to the shrill high register. Each passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. Chords are packed close together in dense clusters in this passage. Each passage should be performed using locally improvisation. Each passage should always include a falling melody pattern with mordents and arpeggios and always include a rising melody pattern with flattened third degree as well as glides and arpeggios.
- The finale is to be loud. The fetha covers its entire range from the fragile low register to the watery high register and the mirise covers its entire range from the strident low register to the shrill high register. The passage has short phrases in the melody. This passage is richly layered with full chords making use of the available range.
- 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 eyo pentatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 11th, the 17th and the 24th.
Events