Old Albic music

Old Albic music is the music of the British Elves during the era of the Commonwealth of the Elves. Most of our knowledge of this music tradition stems from a treatise on music found in the Tresco Library.

Some basic terminology

Pitches are described as mach 'big', e.g. low, or pich 'small', e.g. high. This stems from the observation that small things usually make high sounds and big things low sounds.

Instruments

The most common instruments are the harp (gidir), the flute (siphil). the reed pipe (caran) and the drum (tumbur). Three keyboard instruments are known, the clithigidir (literally, 'key harp'), a stringed instrument similar to a harpsichord; the siphilir (literally, 'flute box'), a simple pipe organ (with just one rank of pipes), about the size of a small upright piano, with the bellows operated by the feet; and the caranar, a reed-pipe organ, which is like the siphilir, except that it has reed pipes instead of flutes.

Vocal music

As in many cultures, vocal music was rated above instrumental music, and the human voice considered the most expressive and most beautiful instrument. The Elvish music tradition distinguishes four vocal range classes: pichesare 'high woman' (soprano), macasare 'low woman' (alto), pichendaro 'high man' (tenor), macadaro 'low man' (bass).

The most highly regarded musical art among the Elves is overtone singing (léalaras, lit. 'spirit-song'). This art usually stuns listeners who do not know what the singers are doing, and has led to the common misconception that the Elves have two pairs of vocal chords (while in fact, their vocal tract is in no way different from that of other humans).