hocketing

A technique in which a melody or melodic fragment is split between two voices that alternate rapidly, each filling in the other's rests. Originally a medieval polyphonic device, it re-emerged in the 20th century in African-influenced minimal music (Steve Reich's Drumming) and in Adams's piano works. In American Berserk and Hallelujah Junction, the two hands or two pianos hocket short figures back and forth at speed, creating a single fast melodic line from two interleaved streams.

Hocketing passages require precise rhythmic independence between the hands or players. Each voice must be confident in its own rhythm — hesitation in one creates a gap the other cannot fill. At tempo, hocketed lines sound merged into one; below tempo, the seam between voices is exposed.