The Flower of Sheens
The Flower of Sheens is a form of music used for entertainment originally devised by the dwarf Erib Spearhandle. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. One to five chanters recite any composition of The Persuaders of Blossoming while the music is played on one to three belbez, one to two abal and one to six kadol. The musical voices join in melody and counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance accelerates as it proceeds. The melody has phrases of varied length, while the counterpoint has short phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed using the ontak scale and in the ibruk rhythm.
- Each chanter always does the counterpoint melody and should be delicate. The voice uses its entire range.
- Each belbez always does the main melody, should be vigorous and uses grace notes. The voice stays in the heavy high register.
- Each abal always provides the rhythm and should bring a sense of motion.
- Each kadol always does harmony and should be delicate.
- The Flower of Sheens has a simple structure: three unrelated passages.
- Each of the simple passages is to start loud then be immediately soft.
- 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.
- The ibruk rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into four bars in a 5-8-10-9 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | - - - - x | - - x x x X - x | x - 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.
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