The Saffron of Adoration
The Saffron of Adoration is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the dwarf Meng Floorscale. 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 while the music is played on two sacat and one to three addor. The musical voices join in melody, counterpoint and harmony. The entire performance is moderately fast. The melody and counterpoint both have short phrases throughout the form. Chords, seldom-used, are sparse -- intervals and single pitches are favored. It is performed using the kulet scale. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to make trills.
- The singer always does the main melody and should sparkle. The voice ranges from the middle register to the high register.
- Each sacat always does harmony and should be passionate.
- Each addor always does the counterpoint melody and should stress the rhythm. The voice uses its entire range from the resonant low register to the shrill high register.
- The Saffron of Adoration has a simple structure: three brief unrelated passages.
- Each of the simple passages is to be very soft. Each passage is performed in the ermis rhythm.
- 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 kulet hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named anam and sedil.
- The anam trichord is the 1st, the 9th 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 ermis rhythm is a single line with sixteen beats divided into eight bars in a 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x - | x - | - x | x x | x - | x - | - x | - x |
- where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
Events