HOCKETING
Hocketing (2026)
for guitar, cello, and percussion · ca. 6 minutes
Instrumentation: Guitar, Cello, Percussion (bass drum, 2 tom-toms, 2 bongos, claves)
PROGRAM NOTE
The title comes from the medieval technique of hocket — literally "hiccup" in French — where instruments take turns completing a single melodic or rhythmic line, each filling the other's rests. I first learned about it in a music history class, and it fit naturally with a poem I love: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "A Musical Instrument," where Pan cuts, shapes, and makes music by a river that remains constant. I wanted to explore the relationship and tension between continuity (like a river) and interruption (hocketing), hearing how the technique translates across three distinctive timbral families: plucked, bowed, and struck.
The piece develops across three sections: the first centers on the cello; the second opens into a sharper percussive texture; the third gives way to the guitar. Throughout, each instrument is continually in hocket with one or two others — passing the musical line back and forth so no single voice ever carries it alone.
PREMIERE & PERFORMERS
World Premiere: June 21, 2026 at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program (Big Barn)
Performers: Kaz Hudson (guitar), Alma Wosner (cello), Lillian Reeves (percussion)
Coached by: Jean-Michel Fonteneau
