An Imaginary Music: A Recital on the Emb Tembuk

These recordings are the first time one of the great Tondish musical traditions has been heard outside of Tond.

The Performer
S’Arik Dãelil is a recognized master of the tembuk. One of the leaders of the Sawarsh style of performance, he was raised in the southern Emb Lands by his musician family and trained for nine years at the Great Klemon. He now gives concerts all over the Emb Lands, and has over one hundred students.

The Instrument
The tembuk is a tuned percussion instrument similar to a marimba. It has wooden keys and is played by striking with various small mallets, but it also has metal (usually bronze) resonators for each key. These vibrate sympathetically with the note struck, adding a metallic “reverb” to the sound of the instrument. The higher register in particular stands out like chimes; these notes are reserved for climactic moments in the performance lest they overwhelm the other sounds.

Similar instruments are found throughout Tond (particularly in the Sherványa territories, where the onomatopoeically-named ketatang is a major part of the Nocturnal Music) but the Emb tembuk is by far the largest, covering nearly five octaves. Its keys are arranged in five banks (like the manuals of an organ), one octave (twelve notes) each, progressing from lowest, nearest the performer, to highest, farthest away.

The Music
Emb classical music is modal and often improvisatory, thus it has more in common with Asian classical musics than their Western counterparts. Harmony and “chords” are unknown, but the solo performer often adds his own fragmentary heterophonic accompaniment in different octaves. Meter is free; there is no recognizable pulse. The scale is more or less the familiar chromatic scale, though the Emb division into “keys” and “modes” is somewhat different than music outside of Tond.

This is music for active listening, not for dancing. It is often performed at formal concerts. Incomprehensible to the non-Tondish at first, the music will nevertheless reveal itself immediately to be in more than one style.

Bolsã are modal pieces, based on ancient melodies. When played on the tembuk, the melodies are slowed down and decorated (and sustained) with irregular tremolo. A subgroup are the sanosã, which use the compositional and performance techniques of the bolsã repertoire but are based on variously rhythmed and accented single pitches, sometimes with a hint of bolsã melody as a kind of coda. In both styles, the high notes (called ewaz or “stars”) are used sparingly to great effect; their first appearance in a concert is seldom without notice.

More esoteric are the esremsã pieces. These appear to the casual listener to be nothing more than random notes. More careful listening reveals that on one level, these pitches are in fact random; that is, they have no discernible pattern; but on another level they are carefully chosen. Esremsã music is derived from the Emb concept of lagofã (“backing off and finding”); in the mystical Emb interpretation of the pan-Tondish Shar-Lan religion, one is to assume the mindset of a small child and trust Shar (the Tondish deity) to show what to do. In the performance of esremsã music, this takes the form of exploring the instrument as if one has never seen it before, playing notes and savoring their sounds without linking them to any others. The audience attempts to assume the same frame of mind, listening without preconceptions or expectations. Despite this highly-concentrated casualness, most esremsã pieces are composed: the existence of “multiple” esremsã confirms this, where phrases repeat later (in double, triple, or even quadruple patterns) while further “explorations” are occurring.

A collection of bolsã, sanosã, and esremsã, lasting for about an hour, makes a sanso or “concert”. Usually the performer begins with bolsã and esremsã styles being very distinct, but the musical forms gradually merge as the bolsã simplify and become more concentrated, changing into sanosã, while the esremsã become more complex and move into the “multiple” styles. During all of this, the master musician also takes into account all four of the Tondish “aspects” of created reality, attempting to both remind the audience of their beneficial natures while avoiding their detrimental features. Thus, kullándu (“fire”) is said to link to the “burning” creative aspects of the music itself, but without discordant notes (or “enemy tones”) that would indicate fiery destruction; likewise, tándáalis (“stone”) indicates the immobile parts of the music (its form and set pitches) without large, ponderous sounds or motifs that would indicate earthquakes or landslides. Lórnáalis (“air”) is shown by the imagination of the artist and the distance between himself and the audience (though this is the most dangerous of “the Four”, the abode of spirits, and the Emb are careful to avoid any ideas of “manifesting”); Kewándii (“water”) is shown as the flow of notes in time, while avoiding loud rushes of sound that would indicate floods.

These philosophies make the music more interesting on a deeper level; however, they are unlikely to be appreciated by the non-Tondish listener. It is my advice that one assume the attitude of lagofã, whether or not it is understood completely, and simply sit back and take in the music without ideas or preconceptions.

 

Okay, this is a fascinating thought experiment, but what is this music really?

It's part of my "Another This World" series. I’ve been messing around with electronic music, musique concrète, and field recordings. I ran some Gregorian chants through a MIDI plug-in and set it to produce a virtual marimba. Adding deep reverb resulted in this mysterious music. The MIDI, interestingly, picked up overtones and resonance of the cathedral recording space, and rendered them as the fragmentary heterophony and “stars” I mentioned in the Emb music. I’m having fun listening to the result, but the original chants are copyrighted material so it is unlikely I will be able to post any of it for the public. Maybe the reader, if curious, can try it themselves.

As for the Emb, they are a civilization in my imaginary world of Tond, the setting for my series of fantasy novels. To read them, follow this link or read this blog's sisters, The Fronds in Tond and the BookWords Blogg (book reviews and fun for "werd nerds"!) Although I don't play anything resembling a marimba, "S'Arik Dãelil" is a reasonable rendering of my name in the Emb language.