Story Form

The traditional form of music in Longbridge, known as ‘story form’, evolved from the worship poems developed by the original Cult of the Hand. The combination of day poems (simple rhythmic work chants) and dusk poems (long stories told in the evenings) is the earliest recorded form of music in Longbridge. Some day poems are still used by labourers in Workhome.

The song in story form is unevenly divided into two sections, tale and dance.

Tale

In the tale section, the performer tells a story one line at a time, punctuated by a short, memorable chant shouted by the audience, forming a kind of call-and-response structure. It is characterised by a mixed-length additive rhythm, where each meter is again unevenly divided into two sections.

The first section, called the soli (solo), is composed of a variable number of ‘long’ beats (3 count) in which one of the performers sings. Each performance group may elect the member with the best voice to be the only singer, but it is just as common for each member to have certain songs assigned to them in roughly equal ratio.

The number of beats in the soli is fluidly variable, being as long or short as necessary to fit each line in the performer’s story. The end of the measure, called the poli (everyone), is composed of exactly two ‘short’ beats (2 count) in which the listeners respond with a brief, memorable chant to punctuate the end of the meter.

In later works of this form, it is common for the second note of the poli to be sustained over the start of the next soli, as an extra layer of harmony in the piece.

The tale traditionally ends with a ‘finale’ meter (usually featuring the longest soli of the tale), and a 2-poli, with four short beats instead of two. This structure is relatively flexible and often depends on the tone of song, with more upbeat subject matter featuring a 3- or 4-poli finale, and more sombre songs favouring the traditional 2-poli fairly strictly. This signals the transition into the dance section of the song.

It is up to the audience to be familiar with the story in order to know when the poli kicks in as the tale section progresses, or to pick it up from other listeners. This works fine for very well-known, traditional songs but can make it difficult for new works to catch on, especially if the performers are trying to do something interesting or unusual with the form. The words used in the poli chant are typically the same - or close variations of the same - in every meter to make memorisation easy. Another method used to help memorisation is to make the poli chant repeat the last two syllables of the preceding soli.

Dance

The dance section features a much more consistent and lively rhythm, with beats landing at the same tempo as in the poli, but now divided into a 3-count, with the middle count de-emphasised to create a triplet-swing feel.

The dance section most often has no words (designed as the name suggests to be danced instead of sung), but will sometimes include a reprise of the finale poli, or the occasional “hey!” (whether it is part of the song or not). Musically it is a more upbeat elaboration of the melodic and harmonic themes established in the tale section of the song, and can feature impressive melodic solo performances from various players in the group.

When performed, the dance section goes as long as the performers feel like playing it and the audience continues dancing to it. The end is signalled by a slowing of the tempo and a crescendo in the performance that builds to a sustained final note. In later styles of performance, there is sometimes a ‘false ending’, where the song appears to slow down and stop, but then suddenly resumes again and continues for a bit longer. This is a playful way of tricking the audience and squeezing a bit more frivolity out of very popular songs.

Modern Dance

The popular form of music enjoyed today in Longbridge is derived from the ‘dance’ section of story form, and features a much more regular meter with fewer time changes, and most often exhibits a crescendo beginning with a relatively low-energy rendition of the song’s theme, which builds to the ‘dance’ proper.