O all-protecting Maker
Yahvic hymn, 50-100 DE?
This example of an early hymn of praise to Yahvo anticipates many of the important principles and techniques of pre-Renaissance D'ni music theory. The vocal line is organized around the second degree of the fourth pitch class, the E below middle c in Western notation; this would later be recognized as mode-2, imparting a minor modality with free use of leading tones. These dissonant semitones appear frequently, evoking the relatively short hymn's nostalgia for a lost home, most likely Garternay. The predominance of consonant leaps (fourths and fifths) and free exploration of pitches within each pitch class are characteristic of pre-Renaissance style. The descending scalar passage, however, is quite unusual in its indication of mode-5 -- perhaps one of the reasons why this hymn among others survived to the time of the Fall.
While difficult to date early D'ni music, the anonymous hymn's subject suggests it is quite old (50-100 DE?), perhaps composed during the reign of Ri'Neref when homesickness for Garternay would still have been keenly felt. Both notation and recording of this hymn were found in the Ae'Gura Concert Hall archives, yet information that might assist in more specific dating and provenance was not preserved. Interestingly, the drone is not notated in the score; it is produced by a traditional bowed, stringed instrument, though we are unsure which. No references which would further assist in dating and provenance have yet been found to I bahreltahn bivahreeuahl in D'ni religious and cultural records currently available for study.
Listen to I bahreltahn bivahreeuahl
I bahreltahn bivahreeuahl
kokoozahem retomahn oglahn
gah renaiteeokh terom gahro
kokroeet tregahlon me neetsahvaitahv
O all-protecting Maker,
you departed from the ancient home
and the roots of your great tree
stirred in the ground of suffering.
D'ni score to the hymn I bahreltahn bivahreeuahl (click to enlarge)
