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Compositional Procedure in Machaut's ‘Hoquetus David’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Extract
Guillaume De Machaut's Hoquetus David has long been regarded as an exceptional work (for sources, see the bibliography appended to this article). Sections of hocket had been included in motets since the twelfth century (see Sanders 1974), and the technique still played an important part in the isorhythmic structure of Machaut's own motets. Surviving examples of hockets as independent compositions, however, are few. From the thirteenth century there are the seven consecutive pieces in Bamberg 115 (ed. Aubry 1908, nos. 102–8), five of them based on the same chant, together with isolated pieces in Montpellier 196 (ed. Rokseth 1935–9, no. 5) and Paris 11411 (no. 3). On the other hand, the numerous references in theoretical treatises to hocket as an independent form on a par with motets and organa suggest that hockets as separate pieces were not uncommon during the thirteenth century. For the fourteenth century, however, the picture is far less clear. Jacob of Liège, writing around 1330–40, states that modern composers use hocket only in motets, having abandoned the old duplex, contra-duplex, triplex, and quadruplex forms (ed. Bragard 1973, 89); and the fact that the Hoquetus David appears to be the only surviving example supports this.
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