HARMONY RULES

The performance piece Harmony focuses on a group of four people playing the game of Harmony.  The following passage contains the rules for the game.

 Goals

Harmony is a game of images.  In each round of the game, players create images and then combine them with those of the other players.  A round ends when all images in it have been combined into one image.  The overall goal of the game is to harmonize all images in all rounds into one final image.  Players “win” by harmonizing with each other.

 Number of Players

There should be an even number of players, preferably four or multiples of four.  In this version of the game, there are four players.  There are also four voices representing the pieces for each player.  The pieces are actively involved in the creation of the images. 

Board and Dice

See Harmony Game Board for a copy of the board.  The game board consists of four concentric circles divided into eight columns.  There are a total of 32 spaces on the board.  Players roll two dice to determine their moves.  A four-sided die indicates the circle of the move.  An eight-sided die indicates the column of the move. 

 Stage

The game board fills the stage.  In the center of the stage/board is a card table. When the four players enter the stage, they sit at the card table with a copy of the game board on it.   The players remain seated at the table for the entire game.  When a player makes a move and lands on a space, the person playing the piece will move to the same space on the stage.

 Player names

Each player’s name is chosen to represent key qualities of the players.  The qualities are translated into gestures, and the gestures are translated into sound gestures which become the name.  Loosely converted into English orthography, the names of the players are as follows.   Men – Ksuyirin Jack and Boley Shuman;  Women – Serenel and Saxti.

 Creating an image

A player and his or her piece create the images together. Often other players and other pieces assist them.  When a player lands on a specific space, he or she creates an image which combines the sound of his or her name plus the sounds and qualities associated with the space.  Once a new sound phrase for the move is discovered, the player (and piece) then create the image based on that sound.  All images consist of a setting and an action taking place in the setting.  The player is the lead voice in creating the setting, and the piece is the lead voice in creating the action.

Sounds and qualities associated with the spaces on the board

A space’s sounds and qualities are determined by its column and its circle.  (See Harmony Game Board.)  Each column has a dominant vowel sound.  The column number indicates the vowel’s region of articulation.    [See Notation Profile.]  Four emotions or feelings dominate the board, and each is assigned to a column.  The columns between these four have a mix of the two neighboring emotions.  This version of Harmony uses Love, Fear, Joy, and Curiosity.  In this version, Column 4 is Love, Column 8 is Fear, and Column 7 combines Love and Fear.  Each feeling is represented by a sound phrase.

Each circle has a dominant consonant range.  The circles also represent qualities of time and action.  The inner circle represents the past.  The second circle represents the future.  The third represents what is wished for in life, and the outer circle is what is actually accomplished in life.

A player who rolls II-4 lands on Circle II, Column 4.  He or she will combine his or her name with the sound phrase representing the emotion love.   The image will look at what will be loved in the future, and it will be shaded with voiceless fricatives and with the vowel sound representing the fourth column.

Harmonizing

Basic images are created by weaving the sounds of the player’s name with the sounds associated with the space on which the player's piece lands.  The new sound phrase is used to suggest the image.  Harmonized images are created by first weaving the sound phrases of the original images into a new sound phrase.  Then the new phrase suggests the new image.

At the end of a round, the two players whose pieces are closest on the board create a harmony of their images.  Then the other two players harmonize their images into a new image.  The round ends when the two harmonized images are combined into a third harmonized image.