The Mine of Canyons

The Mine of Canyons is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Onget Bronzegems originating in The Lantern of Nails. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A chanter recites The Beloved Music. The entire performance is very fast. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the ontak scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to alternate tension and repose.

• The chanter always does the main melody and should be lively.
• The Mine of Canyons has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a brief introduction and one to two passages and an additional passage.
• The introduction is to start loud then be immediately soft. The chanter's voice stays in the low register.
• Each of the first simple passages is to start loud then be immediately soft. The chanter's voice covers its entire range.
• The second simple passage is to be loud. The chanter's voice covers its entire range.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are feb (spoken fe) and berim (be).
• The ontak hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named bidok and sedil.
• The bidok trichord is the 1st, the 5th and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The sedil tetrachord is the 15th, the 17th, the 19th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.

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