EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 66, Issue 03 This issue's topics: About hockets (5 messages) Hocket defined HOCKETING (4 messages) Hocketing and Klangfarbenmelodie Hockets/Rhythmic Cycling/Midi Sequencers (3 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 14:46:11 -0400 From: Mark G Simon Subject: About hockets This is just a historical note for the curious. The un-curious may delete this message right now. The term "hocket" was originally coined to describe a technique often found in 14th century music whereby the composer wrote for 2 voices in such a way that they tossed short notes back and forth in quick succession. It derives from the French word "Hocquet" meaning to hiccup. Guillaume de Machaut is one composer who uses this device a lot. One of my favorite examples occurs in the Art of The Ground Round by P.D.Q. Bach (aka Peter Schickele) where one voice sings "Look .. her .. face could launch a thousand ships" and the other voice sings "she's .. up .. dres..sing, she'll be down in jiffy" and when the two voices sing together the result is "... Look up her dress ..." Some of Henry Purcell's catches have some really obscene lyrics which you can't hear until all the voices are singing together. Bill mentioned orchestral pieces where notes are tossed between the 1st and 2nd violins. This happens quite a lot in classical music, actually, and the effect is lost when the two violin sections sit together, as they usually do nowadays. In Handel's "Israel in Egypt" there's a number called "The land brought forth frogs" in which there is a little two-note figure whose rhythm suggests the word "ribbit". This gets passed back and forth between 1st and 2nd violins, and if the violins are separated, you get to hear the frogs croaking from different directions, as they would do in most ponds. Getting back to electronic music, I take it that when you use the word "hocket" you're refering to a sound that bounces back and forth between left and right channels. Mark Simon mgs2@cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 14:00:22 CDT From: "Kevan L. Moore" Subject: Re: About hockets > One of my favorite examples occurs in the Art of The Ground Round by > P.D.Q. Bach (aka Peter Schickele) where one voice sings "Look .. her .. > face could launch a thousand ships" and the other voice sings "she's .. > up .. dres..sing, she'll be down in jiffy" and when the two voices sing > together the result is "... Look up her dress ..." Some of Henry > Purcell's catches have some really obscene lyrics which you can't hear > until all the voices are singing together. another PDQ bach fan!!!!!!!!!! where can i get some of his old stuff? i have the one with Concerto for Horn & Hardart, Iphiginiah in Brooklyn, Quodlibet, and Symphonia Concertante for 6 solo instruments (incl. bagpipe & lute) and stringed orchestra. Hi-larious. what's he doing now? I saw him live in concert on January 4th, 1985 and laughed till i couldn't breathe. Is he still touring? anyone? anyone? Kevan L. Moore (klm) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 15:07:50 -0400 From: Jon Crystal Subject: Re: About hockets To extend the hocketing discussion, and get back to Nick's original comment about adding some animation to a part: A technique I have found very effective and interesting is to double an ostinato in two distinct voices panned L, R and vary the relative volumes. For example, in the first measure L voice is slightly louder, in the second measure R is louder, and so on. Depending on the tempo of the piece, the timing of the repetition determines how successful this approach is, but when it works it can add a very interesting, subtle "throbbing" kind of effect. Jon Crystal University of Vermont 357 Waterman Burlington, VT 05405 email: jcrystal@moose.uvm.edu phone: 802 656-1163 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 14:59:15 -0500 From: Brian Good Subject: Re: About hockets Mark Simon's hocket history deleted... > Getting back to electronic music, I take it that when you use the word > "hocket" you're refering to a sound that bounces back and forth between > left and right channels. ...or bouncing a line among two or more distinct timbres. And I'll bet you all thought "hocket" was what you do to old equipment when new-gear lust becomes unbearable. brian good nasa lerc ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 12:52:46 +0100 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: About hockets >Getting back to electronic music, I take it that when you use the word >"hocket" you're refering to a sound that bounces back and forth between >left and right channels. The first example of emusic hocketing which comes to my mind is one of those all-time classic examples of technique: Kiew Mission by Tangerine Dream. All PPG work, with a melody picked out in notes with a very long decay, and each note plays a different part of one of the formant wavetables. Recommended. I need to program up a melody generator or something for a performance next week, so I think I'll do something similar on the MicroWave. Nick Rothwell CASSIEL Contemporary Music/Dance nick@cassiel.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 15:20:21 -0400 From: Forton - Raymond Subject: Hocket defined The New Harvard Dictionary of Music defines hocket as; In polyphony of the 13th and 14th centuries, a stylistic device or a self-contained composition characterized by the distribution of a melodic line between two voices in such a way that as one sounds the other is silent. As a device, it is first used in conductus and motets and later in Mass movements and certain of the vernacular forms, above all the caccia and the chace. Although the genre is often mentioned by the theorists, only eleven examples are known to survive. Bamberg and Monpellier manuscripts. Texture of this type is prominent in the musics of some non-Western cultures and is especially characteristic of some African musics. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 13:33:13 GMT From: JOEL STERN Subject: HOCKETING I may remember wronlgly(?), but I thought hocketing was a technique used by 14th and 15th century composers. The term is supposedly related to the word "hiccup" and denoted (I think) a style using dotted rhythmns that kind of...well...hiccupped along. Joel Stern stern@mail.loc.gov ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 14:08:00 -0700 From: Peter Mueller Subject: Re: HOCKETING I may remember wronlgly(?), but I thought hocketing was a technique used by 14th and 15th century composers. The term is supposedly related to the word "hiccup" and denoted (I think) a style using dotted rhythmns that kind of...well...hiccupped along. Joel Stern stern@mail.loc.gov There's also some twentieth century composers who use the technique. For example, check out Robert Erickson's solo trumpet piece "Krl", where he sets up hockets between the trumpet and the trumpeter's voice. Cool stuff. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 21:23:00 GMT From: Gregory A Youngdahl +1 708 979 0013 Subject: Re: HOCKETING Hi All, For what it is worth I broke down and checked a dictionary for a definition of hocketing (I had to go down to the library to find a dictionary with the word in it, the ones around in the offices here didn't have it). Here is what the Websters Third New World Dictionary (unabridged) had: hocket or hoquet 1: HICCUP 2: in medieval music: an interruption of a voice or part by interjected rests resulting in a broken musical line; also: a composition using such an interruption as a contrapuntal device. This sounds essentially like what Joel (and some others) have said. I was under the impression that it was more along the lines of having different instruments (timbers) playing the notes in a melody line, but I suppose that could be derived from the definition by interpreting each individual instrument's melody line as a hocket (each instrument plays a note and then rests while the other instrument(s) is (are) playing). However, apparently having multiple instruments isn't required. Just my $.02, -- Greg Youngdahl AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, IL greg@ihlpm.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 10:50:17 +0200 From: Guy Van Belle Subject: Re: HOCKETING There was even a Dutch contemporary music ensemble, founded by Louis Andriessen I believe, called HOKETUS. The main technique was 'hocketing' and I always thought that it was similar to the Peruvian ensembles. An ensemble is split up in two parts, each of them having similar instruments. Whenever there is a melody played, it is instantly mirrored by the second part of the ensemble. Similar pianotechniques (in which both hands quickly alternate) exist in the history of composition. Or am I wrong? GuyZ11B On Fri, 8 Jul 1994, JOEL STERN wrote: > I may remember wronlgly(?), but I thought hocketing was a > technique used by 14th and 15th century composers. The term is > supposedly related to the word "hiccup" and denoted (I think) a > style using dotted rhythmns that kind of...well...hiccupped > along. > > > Joel Stern > stern@mail.loc.gov > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 08:39:02 -0500 From: Jason Vantomme Subject: Re: Hocketing and Klangfarbenmelodie > This sounds essentially like what Joel (and some others) have said. >I was under the impression that it was more along the lines of having >different instruments (timbers) playing the notes in a melody line, but >I suppose that could be derived from the definition by interpreting each >individual instrument's melody line as a hocket (each instrument plays a >note and then rests while the other instrument(s) is (are) playing). If I remember my freshman music history courses correctly (a la Grout), I believe this technique is called "klangfarbenmelodie". I think it was Webern who took this to its logical conclusion (ie a different instrument for each note) - yep, I think it was Webern. (Should know this...) Jason. _____________________________________________________________________ Jason D. Vantomme, Programmer/Analyst | Institute for the Learning Sciences | Northwestern University | 1890 Maple Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201 | Nothing profound yet... _____________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Jul 1994 18:32:14 EDT From: Keith Bowers Subject: Hockets/Rhythmic Cycling/Midi Sequencers The discussion of hocket rhythms brought to mind a few things- A very clear example of the modern use of hocket writing can be found in Phillip Glass' opera Einstein on the Beach (Knee1). The chorus is counting out groupings of 4,6 and 8 beats while various beats are replaced with rests to form new patterns. This technique is central to many Glass works. The replacing of sounded beats with rests to form complex patterns from basic material is a common technique in Indian Tabla drumming and Sitar improv as well as medival european musics. Steve Reich makes extensive use of the adding and subtraction of rests as patterns develope (Music for Mallet Instruments and Music for 18 Musicians and The Organ music) The cycling of rhythmic patterns against themselves is also a favorite of Paul Dresher, Scott Johnson, John Adams and others. The running of two Wavestation sequences against each other may produce the effect of hocket writing. Howerver it may have more in common with Brian Eno's tape loops, Robert Fripp's Frippertronics or Steve Reich's rhythmic phases. In either case it is a great way to generate new material related in pitch/interval motives but self generating in complex rhythmic relations. Phasing or rhythmic cycling is the playing of two (or more) patterns of differing length against one another. The patterns combine to produce a resultant pattern that has a shifting downbeat.This is common in West African drumming and Indonesian Gamalan music. Of course MIDI SEQUENCERS are perfect for creating these types of structures. The most interesting feature is that the composer has a limited idea regarding what the resultant structure details will be when cycling dis-similar beat groups against each other. For example- a group of 4 played against a group of 3 will take 12 beats to complete one cycle and may be somewhat predictable by the composer; but a group of 17 (3+3+3+3+2) against a group of 12 (4+4+4) will take 204 beats (17x12) to begin the cycle on coinciding downbeats again. The point is that setting these patterns in motion allows us to stand back and hear the music build itself without us knowing exactly what is going to happen. It disolves a veil between ourselves as both performer and listener. kabowers@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 1994 18:32:28 PDT From: Casey Dunn Subject: Hockets/Rhythmic Cycling/Midi Sequencers Jeez, indeed! I havn't seen anything this clearly said, on this list, in quite a while! casey ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 09:01:00 -0400 From: Mark G Simon Subject: Re: Hockets/Rhythmic Cycling/Midi Sequencers > > For example- > > a group of 4 played against a group of 3 will take 12 beats to complete one > cycle and may be somewhat predictable by the composer; > > but a group of 17 (3+3+3+3+2) against a group of 12 (4+4+4) will take 204 > beats (17x12) to begin the cycle on coinciding downbeats again. > > The point is that setting these patterns in motion allows us to stand back > and hear the music build itself without us knowing exactly what is going to > happen. The process you are describing is more closely related to what is usually refered to as "isorhythm", which was a technique popular with the same medieval composers who also used hockets. In the medieval version, a composer created a single melodic line using a repeating cycle of, say, 8 pitches set to a repeating cycle of, say, 11 rhythmic values. The resulting melody, though repetitious, was always varied because the pitch cycle and rhythmic cycle were out of sync. Mark Simon mgs2@cornell.edu ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************