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| Owing in part to the large number of tones in the Zzean language, how Zzeans perform and view music radically differs from mainstream Western culture.
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| For Zzeans, non-"tonal" elements such as rhythm, ornamentation, and scale choice are vital for distinguishing monophonic singing from normal speech. Choral vocal music that uses big block chords is wordless; polyphonic word-ful singing is used in specialized contexts.
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| The boundary between vocal and instrumental music in Zzean culture is somewhat ill-defined, as pitched instruments can "speak" by imitating the tones of speech. One can also choose to play instruments in a more "relaxed" or "conversational" manner by playing in speech-like contours rather than song-like ones, an option also available for voice.
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| == Forms and styles ==
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| Zzean singing traditions include:
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| * an intoned singing tradition
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| * hiphop/rap (speech with stylized rhythm and sometimes autotune)
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| * a religious chanting tradition with much ornamentation
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| * musical theater that seamlessly alternates between song and speech
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| * formal speeches may be delivered as songs accompanied by instruments
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| * something really weird and independent from [[Cuam]] music's weirdness
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| ** Begins from Ancient Zzean secret societies?
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| == Instruments ==
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| * a shruti box that plays 5-note drones for guiding singing
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| * "talking" pitched instruments: drums, flutes, fretless bowed and plucked strings
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| * a monochord/bass drone to reinforce the tonic of a scale (because the melody might not tonicize it)
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| == Scales ==
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| Zzean music is abstractly based on a pentatonic framework, onto which the five tone levels of Zzean are mapped. The tonic of a scale can be any of the 5 level tones. Seven-note scales are viewed as ways to ornament 5-note scales. However, not all Zzean pentatonic scales are octave-equivalent.
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| Traditional Zzean scales are not based on just intonation, but use either roughly 16 equal divisions per octave (for both octave-equivalent scales of the form "1/1 x x x x 2/1" and fifth-equivalent scales) or 16 equal divisions of the Pythagorean perfect fifth (for fifth-equivalent scales of the form "1/1 x x x 3/2").
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| Chord-scale theory is fundamental to the Zzean tradition, as scales are viewed as colorings of the tones of speech.
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| === 2/1-equivalent ===
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| === 3/2-equivalent ===
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| === Other ===
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