Some of the best things that recently happened were isorythmic ! I wish I was philosophically advanced enough to be able to at least have an abstract definition or idea of what an isorythmic text or picture could look like. But I am not, so let´s see where this will get me. All this written in fall 2024 and I am only now getting to discover my thoughts from back then.
Storytime
I first met the word in music history, quite some time ago. Didn´t ever connect the sound and result of the compositional technique in quite a while. When listening to a Mala Punica concert live in Amsterdam in 2017 I made fun of why they wrote in the programme notes which parts and or pieces were isorythmic. The concert was about Ciconia. I did meet Ciconia again, was absolutely stunned by a credo which maybe was also isorythmic. But we met only rarely because I was more active in a bit later repertoire.
In the meanwhile I made my way back to the 14th and 15th century and in 2021 at Nusmido summer course about Machaut I was supposed to sing „Felix virgo“. I´ll never forget! What a huge challenge to learn how to read and sing the text in original handwriting and be quick enough to sill manage hoquetus and other fast melodic movements.
But luckily among the two lower parts there were some less experienced singers and they had to go again and again through their parts which were – of course – highly isorythmic. As a bonus they were inspired by Salve regina, a chant which accompanied me for quite a while afterwards. The whole piece was super dramatic and catchy to me and I tried on many occasions to sing it with other people. None of them had the same urge, so the maximum was some bits of T and Ct… their structure, gentle movements and gestures were in a way the most important to me anyways.
Lacking skilled and interested fellow musician friends regarding 14th and early 15th century repertoire most of my time I really didn´t meet many isorythmic pieces in a while. It only happened again in 2022 Dunstable Nusmido summer course where I was highly fascinated again but still sooo overwhelmed by placing my many words on the cantus parts that I wasn´t able to enjoy to the fullest. I did notice that one of the texts was pretty much amazing in a poetic way. Beautiful alliterations all over. Preco preheminentie! *insert whole text and maybe also the music*
In the meanwhile…
Dávid, my partner, kept making fun of saying „write an isorythmic motet about it“ in random life situations, knowing that little people knew what it actually was, and being so far from what it would mean to write one.
In the meanwhile I had also specialized on alta capella repertoire and I had the long wish to play isorythmic pieces with shawms & trumpets. never happened… the only thing we played was Vasilisa ergo gaude, but on recorders (I had already happily recognized the isorythmic structure some years ago).
Anyways, the big click happened in August 2024, Nusmido course, Ox. 213 Manuscript, two big isorythmic motets in fa for me. Many super inspiring, open, creative participants, writing poems, being into all sorts of arts!
2 days after the course, Nitai wrote a poem and posted in in nice visual shape. So I went to compose the fitting motet.
In the end, his text fits (of course) rather badly, also there are enough imperfections, but it sill counts as isorythmic!
Some insights to the process of composing it:
- as always I went from scratch with no big plan, I just wanted to see what comes out
- counting notes seems to be crucial
- counting measures and numbers of notes within a certain number of measures as well as it shows the relation between rests and notes
- I chose a challenge: 3 talea over 2 color.
- I didn´t manage to have the same notation / talea in any different mensur as I was stupid enough to have it in tempus imperfectum prolatio maior for the first round and there are no imperfections and alterations possible on the level of semibrevis/brevis. Maybe I should have thought about modus perfectum? but now it´s too late, this one is finished. In the end I chose a new talea without any repeat in both T and Ct but at least I kept the same color in both.
- the more different notes you use, the more possible combinations/meetings between notes you get and the more tricky it will be to match them all. I planned going up to f´ on the contra for example but in the end I couldn´t, now both T and Ct have a range f-d´
- the canti were pretty easy. They are not beautiful but if was quick and easy to just write them, bounce around from consonance to consonance. I did make use of the places where a 6 is fitting but I as any beginner I did not make use of enough dissonances I think. Some little imitations were possible, there might be also more excessive use of hoquetus…
- As my motet got longer than planned due to all the counting notes the text was rather too short for it, I didn´t plan properly about how to place it, I simply wrote down the first option that didn´t seem completely stupid.
- I extended Nitai´s title to the nice phrase „Commovi omnes cum concordantibus cum claritate et clementia.“ for Tenor and Contra
- I wrote my own text for the second cantus
- and all of this was huge fun! what is needed now is a good scribe to bring it down in an appropriate shape – and it happened – Just he didn´t manage to write the text as well, yet.