In Byzantine music, the isocratic is the long note sung by the accompanists to support the melody worn by the soloist (Greek psaltis) or by the group (psaltes) in the Greek Orthodox liturgical chants and scattered in the Eastern world .
It comes from the Greek iso: 'equal' and crátima: 'adhesion' or 'fixation'. It means 'keep the same sound'.
The effect of an isocratic is similar to that of the bagpipes in celtic music. It also brings reminiscences of Tibetan horns and mantric dynamics. Note: In the region of Tuva (between Mongolia and Russia) there is an ethnicity capable of using the ventricular bands (or false vocal cords) by certain cartilages, so that they can produce, on a serious and maintained sound, a melodic line pentaphone. End of note.
While the group or soloist is singing the melody, depending on the vowel in which they end, the isocrates (who sing the isocratic) change the vowel; and - depending on the melodic turn - also change the note (height), usually the base note of the tetrachor in which the melodic spin in question is. Therefore the isocratic is changing by melodic zones and remembers to the western melismatic organum.
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