Editing Hocket

{{Short description|Musical technique}}
{{For|the American piano duo|HOCKET (duo)}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
In [[music]], '''hocket''' is the [[rhythm]]ic [[linear]] technique using the alternation of [[note (music)|notes]], [[pitch (music)|pitches]], or [[chord (music)|chord]]s. In medieval practice of hocket, a single [[melody]] is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds while the other rests.

==History==
In European music, hocket or hoquet was used primarily in vocal and choral music of the 13th and early 14th centuries. It was a predominant characteristic of music of the [[Notre Dame school]], during the ''[[ars antiqua]]'', in which it was found in sacred vocal music and string compositions. In the 14th century, this compositional device was most often found in secular vocal music. Although the term is in reference to this secular music of the 13th and 14th centuries in France, the technique under other names can be heard in different types of music across the world.

[[File:In seculum.wav|thumb|In seculum]]
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[[File:Hocket.png|thumb|center|550px|Example of hocket (''In seculum d'Amiens longum''), French, late 13th century. Observe the quick alternation of sung notes and rests between the upper two voices. While this example is textless, the hocket was usually done on a vowel sound.]]

The term originated in reference to medieval French [[motet]]s, though the technique remains in common use in [[contemporary music]]. Examples include  [[Louis Andriessen]]'s ''[[Hoketus]]''; some [[popular music]] of the United States ([[funk]], [[stereo panning]], the guitar duos [[Robert Fripp]]/[[Adrian Belew]] in [[King Crimson]], and [[Tom Verlaine]]/[[Richard Lloyd (guitarist)|Richard Lloyd]] in [[Television (band)|Television]]); the [[Music of Indonesia|Indonesian]] [[gamelan music]] (interlocking patterns shared between two [[musical instrument|instruments]]—called ''[[imbal]]'' in [[Java (island)|Java]] and ''[[kotekan]]'' in [[Bali]]); [[Andean music|Andean]] ''[[siku (panpipe)|siku]]'' music (two panpipe sets sharing the full number of pitches); Ukrainian and Russian ''[[kuvytsi]]'' (panpipe) ensembles, Lithuanian ''[[skudučiai]]'' (panpipe) ensembles, [[handbell]] music (tunes being distributed between two or more players), [[rara music]] in [[rara festival]] street processions in [[Haiti]], as well as in the [[gagá]] in the [[Dominican Republic]]. Hocket is used in many African cultures such as the [[Ba-Benzélé]] (featured on [[Herbie Hancock]]'s "[[Watermelon Man (composition)|Watermelon Man]]," see [[Pygmy music]]), [[Mbuti]], [[Basarwa]] (Khoisan), the Gumuz tribe from the Blue Nile Province (Sudan), and [[Gogo (culture)|Gogo]] (Tanzania). It is also evident in drum and bugle corps drumline music, colloquially known as "split parts" or simply "splits".  Segments of the trombone ensemble in [[Duke Ellington]]'s "Braggin' in Brass"<ref>{{YouTube|S4YkFHbzw8A|"Braggin' in Brass"|t=39}}</ref> are a rare jazz instance of hocket.<ref>{{cite book | last = Schuller | first = Gunther | title = The swing era : the development of jazz, 1930-1945 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New York | year = 1968 | isbn = 9780195043129|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zc4Lh9KC2MIC&pg=PA94|access-date=2 January 2021|oclc=870554980|page=94}}</ref>

[[File:Sikuri.mid|thumb|A [[sikuri]], a traditional [[Andean music]] form, is played in hocket. Computer-generated file.]]

The use of hocketing is in reference to a broken melody line between two or more instruments or vocals, many contemporary artists freely integrate hocketing techniques with other composition devices such as alternating melodies, trading multiple melodic sections, or translating them between instruments or switching intervals of melody, or composing interlocking melodies shared between instruments. Hocket technique typically implied sharing a vocal on the vowels or having a sequence of notes spliced between instruments or vocals with certain notes in the melody being the moments of exchange. Interlocking notes are not a phenomenon in music unique to hocketing, alternating melody techniques have many uses through composition such as enabling certain vocals or instruments to become more audible than others, or effectively combining into a sequential chord, or by splitting the vocals or instruments between audio sources. While hoquet is an antiquated term and in contemporary practice is usually used alongside other melodic compositional devices and experimentation, it has found use in [[funk]], and [[stereo panning]], among other modern techniques typically used in similar style, and in multiple track recordings is often used artificially while editing arrangements of the song.

The group [[Dirty Projectors]] have used hocketing and other antiquated techniques prominently as an element of their music, experimenting with instruments as well as vocals in the style of hocketing or melodic intervals, particularly with interlocking or alternating melodies, though not all these techniques are explicitly the "hoquet" method. The group's frontman [[Dave Longstreth]] has expressed his interest and surprise in the medieval origins of the experimental techniques in use by the band.<ref name="Dirty Projectors">{{cite web|last=Lopez|first=Frances Michel|title=Q&A: Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors sure does like Wikipedia |url=http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2009/10/qa_dave_longstreth_of_dirty_pr.php?page=2|work=Phoenix New Times|publisher=Phoenix New Times|access-date=3 June 2012}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The term comes from the French word ''hoquet'' (in Old French also ''hocquet'', ''hoket'', or ''ocquet'') meaning "a shock, sudden interruption, hitch, [[hiccup]]",<ref>The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' defines [http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87504?redirectedFrom=hocket ''Hocket''] thus: “(in medieval music) an interruption of a voice-part (usually of two or more parts alternately) by rests, so as to produce a broken or spasmodic effect; used as a contrapuntal device.”</ref> and similar onomatopeic words in Celtic, Breton, Dutch and other languages. The words were Latinized as ''hoquetus'', ''(h)oketus'', and ''(h)ochetus''. Earlier etymologies tried to show derivation from Arabic, but they are no longer favored.<ref>{{Cite Grove |last=Sanders |first=Ernest H. |author-link=Ernest H. Sanders |title=Hocket }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bigwala]], ceremonial music from Uganda<ref>{{YouTube|2A-2KJ2MTKk|Bigwala Cultural Group – Mperekera Omwana Womurembe – The Singing Wells project}}</ref>
* [[Kecak]], Balinese performance piece also known as the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3odvMJLGoCo Ramayana Monkey Chant]
* [[Klangfarbenmelodie]]
* [[Melodic fission]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Tagg, Philip. [http://www.tagg.org/articles/epmow/hocket.html "Hocket"], ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World''
* Musical example from ''Cent Motets du XIIIe Siècle'', vol. I, Paris, 1908, 64–65.
* "The Gumuz Tribe: Music of the Blue Nile Province" – ''Anthology of African Music'' (1980) – Reference D8072, Reissue (text by Robert Gottlieb)

[[Category:Musical techniques]]
[[Category:Medieval music theory]]