Hoquetus I-II and Hoquetus David: Hocket Up

Album: Music of the Gothic Era
Track: "Hoquetus I-II" (first ~2 minutes of Track #1 on disk 2) and "Hoquetus David" (Track #20 on disk 2)
Composer: Anonymous and Guillaume de Machaut
Instruments: 2 cornetts, 1 shawm
Year: ~1300 - 1400

That's right, the hocket. Basically, a hocket is a piece where two voices alternate on notes of the melody, one resting while the other sounds. In modern music, you'll often hear a second voice harmonizing, backing the lead, or alternating on verses, but seldom will you hear two voices alternate on the melody multiple times in a measure. I was excited when I discovered this lost art, because it offers something that you'll never hear listening to the radio.

The hocket was actually pioneered by the Notre Dame School of Polyphony, but survived into the 14th century in secular music. I unknowingly encountered the hocket for the first time in "Amor Potest" (see Honking Geese), where its use was so simple-minded that I dismissed it almost immediately. In that piece, they alternated with uniform rhythm and minimal melodic complexity, but the two hockets listed above, "Hoquetus I-II" and "Hoquetus David", demonstrate a much more thorough mastery of the technique. Most notably, they offer rhythmic complexity ("Hoquetus David" is in 9/4 time) -- the way in which the voices pop in and out at irregular intervals, it feels as if they're surprising me even when I know exactly what's coming next.

External Links: YouTube