Xaetjeon

Naquian music

Tuning

Naquian music uses 7-tone scales rich in neutral thirds. Scales are abstractly viewed as subsets of 27 roughly equal divisions of the octave. The 3L 4s MOS scale (5 3 3 5 3 5 3) may be used, but they use other, non-MOS 7-note scales too. The quasi-equal 6L 1s MOS scale (4 4 4 4 4 4 3) in 27edo is mainly used as a reference point rather than actual music, in that notation is based on the 6L 1s scale in the same way that Western notation is based on the diatonic scale.

Movement by one step of 27edo is usually avoided, since it is difficult to sing.

Historically other micro-divisions have been used or proposed - especially 27-well temperaments, 17-well temperaments or 17-equal.

Sjowaazheñ music

Some Sjowaazheñ instruments are the lute (ya'ook), the erhu (shjhedgaañt), the lyre (biliiwid), various end-blown flutes (joweet' ), the base drum (khool) and the woodblocks (ghonyeeñ). String instruments usually are unfretted but marked at perfect fourths.

Sjowaazheñ music is either monophonic or homophonic. Accompaniment, if present at all, is sparse and consists of only one voice (in addition to percussion).

Tuning

The Sjowaazheñ tradition takes a purely melodic, rather than harmonic, approach to tuning, unlike the Talman and Bjeheondian traditions. Sjowaazheñ scales are traditionally based around tetrachords or pentachords which divide the perfect fourth into three or four intervals. Innovations over the years have led to finer divisions or "n-chords" of the perfect fourth in more "sophisticated" music. The general term in Sjowaazheñ for an n-chord is hañbaac (pl. hañbaacin).

The octave may be divided into two perfect fourths plus one whole tone. However, in monophonic music, the perfect fourths divided into hañbaacin may even be stacked on top of each other indefinitely, without regard to octave equivalence.

More recently, the theorist Wañjeyi proposed representing the Sjowaazheñ musical system by dividing the octave into 58 equal parts. (The perfect fourth in 58edo is 24 steps, a highly composite number.)

Some hañbaacin

(Numbers shown are approximate step sizes in 58 equal temperament)

29edo

• naajyetoh: 8 8 8
• jook'etoh: 6 6 6 6

Rhythm

Sjowaazheñ music is typically unmetered - there is a smallest note length and there may be small basic rhythmic figures in the melody but the rhythms are not organized into measures. When percussion accompaniment is used, "small" percussion such as woodblocks may sound on each "beat" in the music. The drum marks the beginning and end of sections.