Hljóðrúnaþing treats composition as a cast (revealed fate), not free improvisation.

Pipeline (in order): • Rhythm first — Realm + Form carve the skeletal grid (Kvæðaháttr-inspired, rarely square 4/8). • Primal Chant — tone row from your Rune Seed + Register (low / mid / high). • Melody & harmony — harmony comes from the Harmonic Cast, not from copying the row as chords. • Orchestration — each note passes a music21-aligned registry (orchestrationRegistry.js): absolute range (reject), comfort tessitura (warn/snap), polyphony. See orchestration_manifest.md in the project folder. • Master Skáld — optional meta-layer if the surface feels “dead,” applying small expressive overrides.

Influences: Norse saga forms (Saga, Rímur, Drápa), liturgical Syncretic mass fragments, Old Norse poetic meter as rhythmic metaphor, and modern spectral/orchestral thinking (register as narrative, timbre as place).

Exports: MIDI reflects the full cast. MusicXML offers Full Score (every instrument) or Condensed Score (~10 orchestral families) for easier reading in Sibelius/MuseScore.

1. Set the World — Realm + Sub-Realm (tempo, gesture, orchestration family). Changing Realm updates Sub-Realm choices and default tempo.

2. Set the Loom — Macro-Form (large fate-arc) + Micro-Form (Þingform debate vs. Ættfaðir lineage). Harmonic Cast: Concordant / Mixed / Discordant / Process (evolving quartal harmony).

3. Chant & line — Rune Seed (blank → FEHU), Register (low/mid/high), Tempo, Length (phrases). Optional: Loki Principle for rule-breaking; Bindrune Seed for a random row.

4. Cast Composition — builds the piece and runs the orchestration gate. The scroll panel shows a full narrative summary of the cast (read-only; not exported).

5. Play — first Play may take a few seconds (offline render). Pause with Play again; Stop resets.

6. Export • Export MIDI — all validated notes with wider velocity spread from each event’s velocity (0–1). • Export MusicXML — full score with eighth-and-shorter beaming per beat, rests filling gaps, and <dynamics> marks when velocity changes (realm default at the opening). • Condensed MusicXML — same notation rules on ~10 orchestral families.

MusicXML is disabled only if the orchestration gate reports hard errors (rare). Warnings (e.g. voice reassignment) still allow export. Status line summarizes duration and any adjustments.

Core • Hljóðrúnaþing — “Assembly of Sound Runes.” • Skáld — poet-composer; the engine’s inner judge (Master Skáld layer). • Rune Seed / Primal Chant — letters → tone row; melody grows from the row, harmony from the Cast. • Realms / Sub-Realms — mythic worlds and scenes (e.g. Álfheimr · Gleam, Midgard · Marketplace).

Forms • Macro-Form — Saga (arc), Rímur (refrain cycles), Drápa (praise), Syncretic (mass + saga). • Micro-Form — Þingform (debate roles), Ættfaðir (forward-mutating row). • Harmonic Cast — Concordant, Mixed, Discordant, Process.

Structure & ritual • Halg / Slit — opening drone and closing dismissal. • Breath of Ginnungagap — meaningful silence between major spans. • Bifröst — section bridge: direct, dissolve, crash, or metric modulation. • Law of the Thread — sections overlap; new Realm color bleeds in before the label changes.

Orchestration • Yggdrasil — Roots (low), Trunk (mid), Branches (high) register placement. • Instrument profiles — each part has written range, max simultaneous notes, and clef; violations are blocked or reassigned at cast time. • Condensed score — export groups engines into ~10 standard orchestral lines (not a second composition).

Debate roles (Þingform) — Motion, Rebuttal, Skapti, Stretto.