Isorhythm - Definition and Overview

Isorhythm is a rhythm or rhythmic gesture, talea (cutting), which is repeated though the pitch content or series, color (repetition), may not repeat. The term was coined in 1900 by Friedrich Ludwig to describe this practice in 14th and 15th century polyphonic motets but is also used in the music of India and by modern composers such as Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen, and John Cage. It may be used in all voices or only a few voices. In motets, it began in the tenor voice but was then extended to higher ones.

See also: French Ars Nova

External links

• Here Of A Sunday Morning WBAI 99.5 FM: Isorhythm (http://www.hoasm.org/IID/Isorhythm.html)
• Isorhythm and Hocket in Guillaume de Machaut's Hoquetus David (http://www.markzobel.com/home/papers/mach.htm) By Mark A. Zobel, Paper Presented at the University of Colorado Doctoral Research Seminar on Black-Note Mensural Notation, Boulder, Colo., April 1999
• London Sinfonietta's Isorhythm composition game (http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/interact/game/isorhythm.html)