OCHETI. - Among the various genres of musical composition that arose in the Middle Ages, the O. is a particular technique, later elevated to a form in its own right, which imparts to the vocal or instrumental piece in which it is applied a characteristic progression (according to the origin of its name, from the French hoquet = hiccup), whereby the rhythm is broken by interruptions that alternately, now in one voice now in an-

OCHETUS - Example of o. triplex ("In aseculum") - Montpellier, Fac. de Médecine, ms. H. 196, f. 1117 (13th cent.).(by courtesy of Signora Luisa Cervelli)

\( ∴ m = frac{3}{11} \)

voice, break the melodic line with brief and frequent pauses.

It was used preferably in motets and in caccie, and was widespread especially in the area of influence of the French Ars nova; in Italy it had little application.

Because of its typically profane character it was cited by Pope John XXII in his extra-vagante De vita et honestate clericorum (1322-23) among the most dangerous novelties, to be avoided in order to safeguard the dignity of sacred music. The O., still unknown in the 12th cent., flourished in the 13th and reached its apogee in the 14th cent., then rapidly declined in the 15th, with the rise of the great polyphony.

Bibliography

BIBL.: M. Schneider, Der Hachetus, in Zeitschr. für Musikwissenschaft, 2 (1920), pp. 300-96.

Luisa Cervelli

@incollection{ec9_ochetus, author = {Cervelli, Luisa}, title = {Ochetus}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {56--57}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ochetus} }

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Ocheti

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