The Wasp of Wings

The Wasp of Wings is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Zepave Fishweather originating in The Contested Storm. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds. The entire performance should be made sweetly, and it is to become softer and softer. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the aweme scale and in the mafina rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to locally improvise and alternate tension and repose.

• The singer always does the main melody.
• The Wasp of Wings has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a first theme, an exposition of the first theme, a bridge-passage, a second theme, an exposition of the second theme and a synthesis of previous passages.
• The first theme is slow. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. The passage should always include a rising melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree as well as glides, grace notes and legato.
• The first exposition is moderately paced. The singer's voice stays in the high register. The passage has short phrases in the melody. The passage should be composed and performed using melismatic phrasing. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with mordents and arpeggios.
• The bridge-passage is moderately fast. The singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. The passage should always include a rising-falling melody pattern with flattened fourth degree on the rise as well as trills and staccato, always include a falling melody pattern with glides, mordents and rapid runs and sometimes include a rising melody pattern with mordents and rapid runs.
• The second theme is extremely fast. The singer's voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. The passage should sometimes include a rising melody pattern with mordents and legato, always include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened second degree on the fall as well as trills, rapid runs and legato and often include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened third degree on the rise as well as glides, grace notes and trills.
• The second exposition is fast. The singer's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The passage has mid-length phrases in the melody. The passage should sometimes include a falling-rising melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree on the fall as well as glides, grace notes and rapid runs, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with grace notes and mordents, always include a falling melody pattern with grace notes, trills and legato and often include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree on the fall, sharpened third degree on the rise and sharpened second degree on the fall as well as rapid runs and staccato.
• The synthesis accelerates as it proceeds. The singer's voice covers its entire range. The passage has long phrases in the melody. The passage should always include a falling-rising melody pattern with trills, sometimes include a rising melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree as well as mordents and rapid runs and sometimes include a falling melody pattern with flattened fourth degree as well as glides, trills, rapid runs and legato.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The aweme hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aro and fathinu.
• The aro tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The fathinu trichord is the 8th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The mafina rhythm is made from two patterns: the thuna and the upe. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The thuna rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into four bars in a 8-8-8-8 pattern. The beats are named arazi (spoken ar), fidale (fi), tarathe (ta), cuthefi (cu), cede (ce), otoga (ot), dinade (di) and ele (el). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - x - - x - x | - - x - - - - - | x x x x x x x x | - - x - x x x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The upe rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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