Look up: isorhythm

1. isorhythm
   a technique for musical organization used during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in which the tenor repeats a certain pattern of pitches (the 'color') and a certain rhythmic pattern (the 'talea'). The color and talea may be different lengths. Used commonly in the motet; also used in som...
   Found on http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~cynthia.cy
   
   
2. isorhythm
   in music, the organizing principle of much of 14th-century French polyphony, characterized by the extension of the rhythmic texture (talea) of an ... [5 related articles]
   Found on http://www.britannica.com/eb/a-z/i/45
   
   
3. isorhythm
   In music, a form in which a given rhythm cyclically repeats, although the corresponding melody notes may change. It was used in European medieval music, and is still practised in classical Indian music. The composers Alban Berg, John Cage, and Olivier Messiaen used isorhythmic procedures
   Found on http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/ency
   
   
4. Isorhythm
   of Machaut`s Messe de Nostre Dame (c. 1360). A color of 28 notes is arranged with a four-note talea pattern which repeats seven times. `Isorhythm` (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating rhythmic ...
   Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isorhythm