User:IlL/Spare pages 1/79

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.

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.

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.

Forms and styles

Zzean singing traditions include:

• an intoned singing tradition
• hiphop/rap (speech with stylized rhythm and sometimes autotune)
• a religious chanting tradition with much ornamentation
• musical theater that seamlessly alternates between song and speech
• formal speeches may be delivered as songs accompanied by instruments
• something really weird and independent from Cuam music's weirdness
  • Begins from Ancient Zzean secret societies?

Instruments

• a shruti box that plays 5-note drones for guiding singing
• "talking" pitched instruments: drums, flutes, trombones and fretless bowed strings
• a monochord/bass drone to reinforce the tonic of a scale (because the melody might not tonicize it)

Scales

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.

Traditional Zzean scales are not based on just intonation, but use either roughly 24 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").

Chord-scale theory is fundamental to the Zzean tradition, as scales are viewed as colorings of the tones of speech.