# Unusual Music



## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

The Hoquetus, or hocket, was a popular musical species which flourished in the High Middle Ages. Believed to have begun with the Medieval French Motet, the hocket quickly spread throughout Western Europe in both sacred and secular uses. The hocket is distinguished by an idiosyncratic rhythm in which a group of singers or instrumentalists alternate the melody between themselves. With a relatively quick tempo, one instrument or singer will begin a phrase, but be interrupted by the intrusion of another instrument or singer.

Presumably a very popular device in its era, the hocket fell into disuse largely because of the ban issued by Pope XXII in 1325 prohibiting its employment in church; thus only a handful of these unique works survive, hidden in obscure texts, especially the Bamberg Codex.

Happily, early music scholars have transcribed and performed these strange little pieces and made them readily accessible on YouTube.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Nice and interestingly quirky music ...

*Gubajdulina* also wrote a quite attractive chamber piece with hoquetus/"hiccup" inspiration ;-)


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Yikes, just look at those time signature changes! 

7/16 makes my head spin.

Very interesting, though. I'll have to save it and listen to the whole thing. Thank you!


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Very nice! I love David Munrow's recordings!

Best regards, Dr


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

Novelette thank you for this knowledge! The music at your link is very nice!!


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Yoko Ono is weird.










A friend of mine had lost his wife. When he'd get drunk, he'd tell me story as he reminisced the past. His wife had a leg injury and cast one time, she was immobile on the couch, they had an extensive record collection, you probably see where this is going. One record had Lennon on one side, Oko on the other. Husband dear had a repeat play on the Oko side while he was at work, full volume, his wife had thrown all objects within reach at the record player unable to fulfill her goal.

And then he'd say grimly, 'She never forgave me for that.'

They'd actually never married, but had lived together for decades.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Thanks for the nice link!

Many a church 'musical ban' came about because the text, for the listener, was made confusing or not clear - and the text was of the uppermost importance to the church.

Hoquetus, in vocal church music, was, I'm sure, thought to 'confuse' the listener, or known to distract the listener's ear more to the music than to pay attention to the texts.

_As Robert Moran said of his "Requiem, Chant du Cygne" - it is like a Musical Ping Pong Game._

Louis Andriessen ~ "Hoketus"





Robert Moran ~ "Chant du Cygne" For four choirs and four instrumental ensembles (spaced at the extreme ends of each side of the building), specifically composed for a cathedral with a very long resonance decay time.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Ono isn't weird, I meant unusual, sorry....


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

That is interesting, as far as 'the hocket', wink wink. I've listened to enough older music, and of that mostly Renaissance. Lagrime di San Petro is a favorite of mine. 

The generalized 'Unusual music' thread name made me blurt an unfortunate completely unrelated comment, didn't mean to ruffle any feathers or show even less involvement than usual. I need start apply myself more in conversations instead of simply somehow managing reading something and shout a CABLAMO!!! 

tip toe, tippy tip toe...


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

The Hoquetus was marginally interesting, I suppose.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

I originally came upon this genre, if I may call it that, by chance. I was leafing through the New Harvard Dictionary of Music and I chanced to come across the description of these works, after which I looked into them on YouTube.

Music history is so fascinating, especially the history of Medieval music.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

I agree, though it has been awhile since I'd read anything on it, the history is fascinating. I did recently get a Hildegard bio.

I remember as a kid, reading something about a very famous blind performer/organist/composer, there was a sculpture of him in the encyclopedia I had. Also something about a true mammoth vocal composition written by Ockeghem, if I'm not mistaken? And many other things in which I've simply been too lazy to investigate.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Clovis said:


> I agree, though it has been awhile since I'd read anything on it, the history is fascinating. I did recently get a Hildegard bio.
> 
> I remember as a kid, reading something about a very famous blind performer/organist/composer, there was a sculpture of him in the encyclopedia I had. Also something about a true mammoth vocal composition written by Ockeghem, if I'm not mistaken? And many other things in which I've simply been too lazy to investigate.


Landini was a great Renaissance composer, and he was blind from childhood.

Ockeghem wrote a bunch of stuff, but his Missa Prolationum is was one of the most fascinating/unusual pieces of music in all of Music History. It uses a Mensuration Canon.

What you're hearing is 2 lines of music... _but 4 mensuration signs._


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Yes! Yes! The Prolation Mass! One of the most interesting works in the entire polyphonic repertoire. I daresay, it has a place occupied also only by Brahms' obscure, but very excellent, Missa Canonica.


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