The Intricacy of Skirts

The Intricacy of Skirts is a form of music used for entertainment originating in The Bright Lies. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites any composition of The Gold of Mining while the music is played on one to four odgu and a ustol. The musical voices join in melody, counterpoint and harmony. The entire performance should feel mysterious. The melody and counterpoint both have short phrases throughout the form. It is performed using the lasm scale.

• The chanter always modulates frequently. The voice ranges from the middle register to the high register. The voice stays in the heavy low register.
• The Intricacy of Skirts has the following structure: a verse and a brief chorus.
• The verse is voiced by the melody of the chanter, the counterpoint of the ustol and the harmony of the odgu. The passage is very slow, and it is to be loud. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed in free rhythm.
• The chorus is voiced by the melody of the ustol. The passage slows and broadens, and it is to fade into silence. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed in the ost rhythm.
• Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance. After a scale is constructed, the root note of chords are named. The names are ekxox (spoken ek) and asmuk (as).
• The lasm hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 5th, the 9th, the 12th, the 19th and the 21st.
• The ost rhythm is made from two patterns: the slulasp (considered the primary) and the slusna. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The slulasp rhythm is a single line with eight beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x x X x x - x |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The slusna rhythm is a single line with four beats divided into two bars in a 2-2 pattern. The beats are named sasne (spoken sa) and odu (od). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - | - x |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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