The Intricacy of Phrasing

The Intricacy of Phrasing is a form of music used for entertainment originally devised by the dwarf Zon Gleefulpaged. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. Three singers recite nonsensical words and sounds. The entire performance is at a walking pace. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the bemong scale and in the libash rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to use grace notes and play arpeggios.

• Each singer always does the main melody and should perform sweetly.
• The Intricacy of Phrasing has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, a bridge-passage and a series of variations on the theme possibly all repeated.
• The theme is to be soft. Each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage should be performed using locally improvisation. The passage should often include a falling-rising melody pattern with mordents and always include a rising-falling melody pattern with sharpened sixth degree on the fall as well as trills.
• The bridge-passage is to fade into silence. Each of the singers' voices ranges from the middle register to the high register. The passage should be performed using trills.
• The series of variations is to be moderately soft. Each of the singers' voices covers its entire range. The passage should be performed using trills.
• 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 bemong hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named nicol and mabdug.
• The nicol trichord is the 1st, the 3rd and the 11th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The mabdug tetrachord is the 15th, the 18th, the 22nd and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
• The libash rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beats are named lakish (spoken la) and asdos (as). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

Events

• In midautumn of 116, The Intricacy of Phrasing was created by the dwarf Zon Gleefulpaged in Bearpacked