The Intricacies of Meandering

The Intricacies of Meandering is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originally devised by the dwarf Etur Razorcolumn. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. Two to five singers recite nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on two to four mishak. The musical voices bring melody and counterpoint. The entire performance should be vigorous and is fast. The melody has long phrases, while the counterpoint has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. The music repeats for as long as necessary. It is performed using the kulet scale.

• Each singer always does the main melody. The voice stays in the low register.
• Each mishak always does the counterpoint melody. The voice ranges from the crisp middle register to the resonant top register.
• The Intricacies of Meandering has a simple structure: a passage.
• The simple passage is to be in whispered undertones. The passage is performed in the ugath rhythm.
• 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.
• As always, the kulet pentatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords drawn from the fundamental division of the perfect fourth. These chords are named gatal and mabdug.
• The gatal trichord is the 1st, the 4th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The mabdug trichord is the 1st, the 7th and the 11th degrees of the fundamental perfect fourth division.
• The ugath rhythm is made from two patterns: the ish and the ugog. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The ish rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into two bars in a 8-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - - - - - x - x | X x x x x x - x |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The ugog rhythm is a single line with five beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | X x - - x |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events

• In early summer of 176, The Intricacies of Meandering was created by the dwarf Etur Razorcolumn in Mellowjumps