Music

Technique

Bards can play up to 21 different musical notes - A B C D E F G (whole notes), A# B# C# D# E# F# G# (sharp notes) and Ab Bb Cb Eb Fb Gb (flat notes). While the musical notation is similar in transcription to more traditional music, Bards are able to produce special sounds that go beyond the effects of ordinary music. By using a musical instrument such as a lyre or harp, bards can cause magical harmonies. Trained from birth, the music of a true bard is an amazing thing to hear.

At least three, and up to seven notes can be strung together to create a magical effect - too many notes and the combination becomes unstable, and has been known to result in lethal backfires of the harmonies. The whole notes - A B C D E F G - have heavier weight than sharps and flats. Depending on the order in which they are played, the notes may have lighter or heavier weights.

The ability to conjure more complex magic depends on the musician's skill level and the complexity of the instrument with which he shares his music with the world.

Instruments

The power of the song can also be modified depending on the musical instrument on which it is played. Allowing the bard to go beyond the ranges of his voice, the musical instrument serves to enhance the strength of the vibrations that are used to create magical effects.

Instruments range from very simple, such as a practice lyre, to very complex, such as the legendary hand-carved viola, a very high-level and high-powered creation. Bards level 145 and higher may choose to obtain a well-crafted violin through questing. One of the more common instruments for adventurers above level 150 is the magical bagpipes. Vendors selling other instruments, as well as opponents one can combat for their instruments, can be found in most major townes.

Types of Instruments

Musicologists in Xaventry, a half-elf named Sachs and an elf named Hornbostel created a formal taxonomy for musical instruments, classifying them by the origin of the sound produced. The so-called Sachs-Hornbostel System categories and sub-categories are:

• Idiophone - In which a vibrating solid material is used to produce sound.
• Concussion - Cymbals or castanets
• Friction - Musical glasses
• Percussion - Most unsophisticated drums
• Plucked - Mouth harp or mbira
• Scraped - Washboards
• Shaken - Maracas or bells
• Stamping - Tap shoes
• Stamped - Rhythm blocks
• Membranophone - In which a vibrating stretched membrane produces sound.
• Kettle Drum - Timpani
• Tubular Drum - Some specially-shaped drums
• Friction Drum - Frictive drums
• Mirliton - Kazoos
• Frame Drum - Tambourines
• Pot Drum - Pot drums
• Ground Drum - Animal skin stretched over a hole in the ground
• Aerophone - In which a vibrating mass of air is used to produce sound.
• Brasswind - Bugles, horns, saxophones, tubas
• Woodwind - Clarinets, flutes, whistles
• Free_Reed - Accordions, bagpipes, harmonicas
• Chordophone - In which a stretched vibrating string is used to produce sound.
• Musical Bow - Violins, upright bass
• Harp - Harps
• Lyre - Lyres
• Lute - Guitars, banjos, mandolins, hurdy gurdys
• Zither - Zithers
• Electrophone - In which an artificial sound is created and amplified.
• Steam - Jack-in-the-boxes
• Magic - Unknown
• Unknown - Unknown

Common Songs

As multiple songs exist that produce the same effect, a listing of the most common songs follow. Additional songs can be discovered and played if the Bard possesses a powerful enough musical instrument.