Isorhythm

Transcription in modern notation of the isorhythmic tenor voice from the opening of the Kyrie of Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame (c. 1360). A color of 28 pitches is arranged with a talea of four durations which repeats seven times (28 ÷ 4 = 7).

Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a talea, in at least one voice part throughout a composition. Taleae are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns of pitches or colores, which may be of the same or a different length from the talea.