The Righteous Strikes
The Righteous Strikes is a devotional form of music directed toward the worship of Nokzam the Crown of Teeth originally devised by the dwarf Olon Tombriver. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A chanter recites nonsensical words and sounds. The entire performance is consistently slowing, and it is to fade into silence. The melody has mid-length phrases throughout the form. Only one pitch is ever played at a time. It is performed using the kulet scale and in free rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to alternate tension and repose.
- The chanter always does the main melody and should be stately.
- The Righteous Strikes has a well-defined multi-passage structure: a theme, a lengthy exposition of the theme, a bridge-passage and a lengthy recapitulation of the theme.
- In the theme, the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
- In the exposition, the chanter's voice stays in the middle register.
- In the bridge-passage, the chanter's voice ranges from the low register to the middle register.
- In the recapitulation, the chanter's voice covers its entire range.
- Scales are constructed from twenty-four notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is fixed only at the time of performance.
- The kulet hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning a tritone and a perfect fourth. These chords are named anam and izeg.
- The anam trichord is the 1st, the 12th and the 13th degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
- The izeg tetrachord is the 15th, the 17th, the 20th and the 25th (completing the octave) degrees of the quartertone octave scale.
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