Kzmr music
Kzmr music refers to the various musical traditions, past and present, of the Kkzmrš, as well as other music written within the borders of Kzmr. Music is a highly important part of Kzmr culture, with many of the most famous examples of cultural heritage of the nation, such as reading of ššzþ, Kzmr geomancy, and Kzmr wrestling, entailing music to some degree. Beyond this, music in Kzmr is often written and performed for its own sake in a wide variety of genres ranging from traditional liturgical music, to modern popular forms such as the song poem or sentimental ballad. In the contemporary era, Srn has become an epicenter of musical experimentation, with a flourishing noise music scene and the development of unique variants of Baphian-influenced genres such as stuttercore and Baphian breakcore.
Traditional music
The traditional music of Kzmr is divided into several subgenres with their own unique traits, often so divergent from one another that it is difficult to name characteristics that encompass all Kzmr folk music. A few illustrative and particularly influential types will be discussed here.
Šzþ recitation
The šzþ, or epic poem, is Kzmr's most ancient literary form, and the musical tradition that stems from it is thought to also be the oldest style of Kzmr music. Recitation of a šzþ is typically done in a sung fashion with unmetered time – emphasis can be given either by drawing out a syllable or perhaps adding a melisma, or by speeding through a long sequence of syllables in a short time to convey a feeling of agitation. The melody itself is sung with each syllable (or each division of a melisma) being assigned to to a successive note in a repeated trdrtu (lit. wheel), a concept corresponding to the color in an isorhythmic composition. Often, the trdrtu consists of a number of notes which is not a factor of the number of syllables in the line, which would cause the following line to start on a different note from the last. Three different strategies are commonly used when starting a new line:
- starting over at the beginning of the trdrtu,
- allowing the trdrtu to continue in the next line, often used for a enjambment-like effect,
- or adding a rapid melisma at the end of the line to ensure that the first syllable of the next line is aligned with the first note of the trdrtu.
Over time, a repertoire of semi-standardized ttrdrtu has developed, and each one is associated with its own mood and symbolism. Some are irrevocably tied to a single epic, or even a single scene, such as the trdrtu tnnk'agbhki, which is almost exclusively used in performances of the stanzas of the Epic of Sntp'ukžri in which Sntp'ukžri kills the mythical dragon Þksamrn. Typically, a šzþcš (reciter of epic poetry) will only switch from one trdrtu to another when moving from one stanza to the next, although exceptions exist for various purposes.
Recitation is almost always unaccompanied, but there are rare cases in which a šzþcš will self-accompany using a vbþ, a Kzmr percussion instrument in the talking drum family.
Liturgical music
The liturgical music of Kzmr is primarily comprised of Nrþk'irduist choral repertoire, though there are other forms such as Shidamist vocal music of the religion's minority in Srn, or the canticular forms of the spoken formulas in Kzmr geomancy. However, Nrþk'irduist music has historically had a significant influence in Kzmr, as Kzmr musical notation (hhprk 'rdþsu, lit. "singing letters") was created by a Nrþk'irduist priest known as Phmihgþs, and has various traits designed with this style of music in mind.
Nrþk'irduist vocal music is heavily based upon canon and heterophony. It also has a polytonal tendency, with canons at imperfect intervals being very common and many works having no two voices singing in the same scale. To reconcile these two basic facts, there are several methods of scalar mapping typically used in this genre of music, which are as follows:
- Maintaining the distance in terms of scale degrees, at the expense of the acoustic intervals. As such, a leap of an octave (consisting of seven scalar steps) in any heptatonic scale would be realized as a leap of a major ninth in the whole-tone scale. In hhprk 'rdþsu, notes that are to be transposed in this manner are denoted using the heavenly stems.
- Moving by a specific acoustic interval, then rounding to the nearest note in the scale. For this purpose, the quality of the interval is temporarily ignored and the realization is determined solely by the number of the interval. Thus, movement by a minor third or a major third are both subsumed under the generalized notion of movement by a third – however, intervals that can be perfect (i.e. the fourth and fifth) are such under all circumstances. These are denoted by the numbers one through five, representing the intervals from the second to the sixth, in hhprk 'rdþsu. In cases where a movement by a perfect interval would land exactly between two notes of a scale, for example, when moving up a perfect fourth from the tonic in the Lydian mode – and more rarely, when both realizations of an imperfect interval are invalid and each the same distance from the closest possibility (assuming this possibility is not shared), a 'bias' can be marked, indicating whether one should round to the closer or farther note from the origin.
- Having an underlying chromatic line expressed in terms of absolute values, which is then rounded to the scale being used. Like intervalic movement, 'bias' can be marked, this time denoting whether one rounds to the closest higher note or the closest lower note if the chromatic pitch is not part of the scale. Ascending from F to E, these are marked in hhprk 'rdþsu first with the color names in reverse rainbow order (i.e. from violet to red) with the first two radicals removed, then with the color names in ordinary rainbow order with the first two radicals removed and the remaining radicals struck through.
To maintain the consistency of written parts in canons, individual voices can be treated as transposing instruments. Thus, the realizations of , which ordinarily represents the pitch of F, and the tonic note 🜚 are listed at the start of the score, as well as the name of the scale which is used. It is important to note that the concept of scale in this system of music theory partially subsumes that of ornamentation, with many scales having inherent ornaments applied to certain degrees of the scale. Nonetheless, further ornaments can be added outside of those defined by the scale.