The Butterfly Skirt of Couples
The Butterfly-Skirt of Couples is a form of music used to commemorate important events originally devised by the dwarf Kadol Pagesculpted. The rules of the form are applied by composers to produce individual pieces of music which can be performed. A singer recites the words of The Wind Will Tell In The End while the music is played on a ashok, three betan and a luzat. The musical voices cover melody, harmony and rhythm. The entire performance should feel mournful. The melody has phrases of varied length throughout the form. It is performed in the ngarak rhythm. Throughout, when possible, composers and performers are to play staccato and match notes and syllables. The voice ranges from the low register to the middle register. The heavy voice uses its entire range.
- The Butterfly-Skirt of Couples has the following structure: three to four unrelated passages and a finale.
- Each of the simple passages is voiced by the melody of the singer, the melody of the luzat and the harmony of the betan. Each passage is fast, and it is to be very soft. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. Each passage is performed using the ontak scale.
- The finale is voiced by the melody of the betan, the harmony of the luzat and the rhythm of the ashok. The passage is at a hurried pace, and it is to become louder and louder. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed without preference for a scale.
- 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 ngarak rhythm is made from two patterns: the ermis (considered the primary) and the roder. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
- 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.
- The roder rhythm is a single line with thirty-two beats divided into four bars in a 8-8-8-8 pattern. The beat is stressed as follows:
- | x x - 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.
Events