The Sparkle of Styling

The Sparkle of Styling is a form of music used to commemorate important events originating in The Contested Storm. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. The music is played on a eriya, a amafe and a arabe. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance is to be very loud. The melody has short phrases, while the counterpoint has long phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed using the fela scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose.

• The Sparkle of Styling has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, a bridge-passage and one to two series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated.
• The theme is voiced by the melody of the eriya, the melody of the amafe and the rhythm of the arabe. The passage should be vigorous and is at a free tempo. The amafe stays in the buzzy low register.
• The bridge-passage is voiced by the melody of the amafe, the counterpoint of the arabe and the harmony of the eriya. The passage should feel agitated and is extremely fast. The amafe covers its entire range from the buzzy low register to the raucous high register. The passage should be composed and performed using locally improvisation. The passage should sometimes include a falling melody pattern with rapid runs, sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern and always include a rising melody pattern with sharpened fourth degree as well as rapid runs.
• Each of the series of variations is voiced by the melody of the eriya. Each passage should be made expressively and is moderately paced.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student.
• The fela heptatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named aro and datha.
• The aro tetrachord is the 1st, the 3rd, the 4th and the 7th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The datha tetrachord is the 8th, the 9th, the 10th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.

Events