The Satiny Phrase

The Satiny Phrase is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Contested Storm. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A singer recites nonsensical words and sounds while the music is played on two letha and one to three arabe. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is very fast. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. Never more than an interval sounds at once. It is performed using the fena scale and in the atha rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to play rapid runs and play arpeggios.

• The singer always does the main melody, should be jumpy and is to fade into silence. The voice uses its entire range.
• Each letha always does harmony, should stress the rhythm and is to be loud.
• Each arabe always provides the rhythm, should bring a sense of motion, is to be moderately soft and plays staccato.
• The Satiny Phrase has a simple structure: a passage.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The fena heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aro and thili.
• The aro tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The thili tetrachord is the 8th, the 11th, the 12th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The atha rhythm is made from two patterns: the atho (considered the primary) and the datome. The patterns are to be played in the same beat, allowing one to repeat before the other is concluded.
• The atho rhythm is a single line with three beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x x |
• where x is a beat and | indicates a bar.
• The datome rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named lari (spoken la) and aratha (ar). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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