In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g. quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody is called the follower which is played in a different voice. The follower must be created from the leader by being either an exact replication of the rhythms and intervals of the leader, or a transformation such as those listed in "types of canons" (below). The simplest and most familiar examples are rounds such as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ... Counterpoint is a broad organisational feature of much music, involving the simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... In music theory, an interval is the relationship between two notes or pitches, the lower and higher members of the interval. ... A round is a musical composition in which two or more voices sing exactly the same melody, beginning at different times. ... Row, Row, Row Your Boat is a nursery rhyme, and a popular childrens song, often sung as a round. ...

History

The Old French canon, which meant 'learned', was taken from the Greek kanon for a rule or law, which eventually came to mean 'an accepted rule' in English, and the term was first used for the rule that describes how the voices relate to each others. Not until the sixteenth century was canon used to describe the musical form. The earliest known canons are the rounds (or rondellus) in England from the thirteenth century; the best known is Sumer Is Icumen In. In the fourteenth century many canons were written in Italy under the name caccia, and occasionally French chansons of that period used canon technique. During the period of the Franco-Flemish School (1430-1550), canon as a contrapuntal art form received its greatest development, while the Roman School gave it its most complete application. In the later periods the canon played a less important role (as entertainment), with a few noteable exceptions like Bach's 'The Musical Offering'. Arnold Schoenberg revived the interest in canon with his twelve-tone technique. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The term musical form is used in two related ways: a generic type of composition such as the symphony or concerto the structure of a particular piece, how its parts are put together to make the whole; this too can be generic, such as binary form or sonata form Musical... Look up round in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... Sumer Is Icumen In is a traditional English round, and possibly the oldest such example of counterpoint in existence. ... Chanson is a French word for song, and in English-language contexts is often applied to any song with French words, particularly a cabaret song. ... In music, the Dutch School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. ... In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers active in Rome from the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries, most famous for their sacred music and polished polyphony; the most famous was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. ... Bach redirects here. ... The Musical Offering (German title Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, based on a musical theme by Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) and dedicated to him. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 Schoenberg redirects here. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

Types of canons

The most rigid and ingenious forms of canon are not strictly concerned with pattern but also with content. Canons are classified by various traits: the number of voices, the interval at which each successive voice is transposed in relation to the preceding voice, whether voices are inverse, retrograde, or retrograde-inverse; the temporal distance between each voice, whether the intervals of the second voice are exactly those of the original or if they are adjusted to fit the diatonic scale, and the tempo of successive voices. However, canons may use more than one of the above methods. In music theory, an interval is the relationship between two notes or pitches, the lower and higher members of the interval. ... Inverse typically means the opposite of something. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Stub ... Below is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores. ...

How voices in a canon are named

Although, for clarity, this article uses leader and follower(s) to denote the leading voice in a canon and those that imitate it, musicological literature also uses the traditional Latin terms Dux and Comes for "leader" and "follower", respectively. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language. ...

Number of voices

A canon of two voices may be called a canon in two, similarly a canon of x voices would be called a canon in x. This terminology may be used in combination with a similar terminology for the interval between each voice, different from the terminology in the following paragraph.

Another standard designation is "Canon: Two in One", which means two voices in one canon. "Canon: Four in Two" means four voices with two simultaneous canons. "Canon: Six in Three" means six voices with three simultaneous canons, and so on.

Interval

An interval canon imitates the leader at any interval other than the octave or unison (e.g. canon at the second, fifth, seventh, etc.). If the follower imitates the precise interval quality of the leader, then it is called an exact canon; if the follower imitates the interval number (but not the quality), it is called a diatonic canon. In music theory, an interval is the relationship between two notes or pitches, the lower and higher members of the interval. ... In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European-influenced musical tradition. ...

Contrapuntal derivations

The follower may be a contrapuntal derivation of the leader. Counterpoint is a broad organisational feature of much music, involving the simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines. ...

Inverse

An inverted canon (also called canon in contrary motion) moves the follower in contrary motion to the leader. Where the leader would go down a fifth, the follower goes up, and vice versa. A sub-order of canon in contrary motion, "mirror," maintains the precise quality of each interval. In music theory, contrary motion is the general movement of two melodic lines or pitches in opposite directions. ...

Retrograde

In a crab canon, also known as cancrizans, the follower accompanies the leader backward (in retrograde). A crab canon is an arrangement of two things that are complementary and backward. ...

Mensuration and tempo canons

In a mensuration canon (also known as a prolation canon, or a proportional canon), the follower imitates the leader by some rhythmic proportion. The follower may double the rhythmic values of the leader (augmentation or sloth canon) or it may cut the rhythmic proportions in half (diminution canon). Phasing involves the application of modulating rhythmic proportions according to a sliding scale. The cancrizans, and often the mensuration canon, take exception to the rule that the follower must start later than the leader. A prolation canon is a type of musical canon. ... In music the compositional technique phasing, discovered by composer Steve Reich, is that while the same part is played on two musical instruments, one instrumentalist keeps playing in steady tempo, while the other gradually moves ahead of the first until it becomes out of and then back in phase (the...

Technically, mensuration canons are among the most difficult to write. Many such canons were composed during the Renaissance, particularly in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; Johannes Ockeghem wrote an entire mass (the Missa Prolationum) in which each section is a mensuration canon, and all at different speeds and entry intervals. In the twentieth century, Conlon Nancarrow composed complex tempo or mensural canons, mostly for the player piano as they are extremely difficult to play; they have also influenced many younger composers. Larry Polansky has an album of mensuration canons, Four-Voice Canons. Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... Ockeghem (with glasses) and his singers Johannes Ockeghem (c. ... Conlon Nancarrow (October 27, 1912 - August 10, 1997) was an American composer who took Mexican citizenship in 1955. ... The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ... Larry Polansky is a composer, guitarist, and a professor at Dartmouth. ...

Other types of canons

The most familiar of the canons might be the perpetual/infinite canon (in latin: canon perpetuus). As (each voice of) the canon arrives at its end it can begin again, in a Perpetuum mobile fashion; e.g. "Three Blind Mice". Such a canon is often called a round or rota. Sumer is icumen in is one example of a piece designated rota. Perpetuum mobile (Latin), moto perpetuo (Italian), mouvement perpétuel (French), literally meaning perpetual motion, are terms applied to pieces of music, or parts of pieces, characterised by a continuous steady stream of notes, usually at a rapid tempo. ... Look up round in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up rota in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sumer Is Icumen In is a traditional English round, and possibly the oldest such example of counterpoint in existence. ...

Additional types include the spiral canon, accompanied canon, and double or triple canon.

Puzzle canon

A Puzzle canon can be any of the above types, but only one voice is notated, and it is up to the performer to find out which rule applies to the canon. Often some kind of riddle is given as a hint. Machaut's rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement et mon commencement est ma fin (My end is my beginning and my beginning is my end) is a crab canon with a third voice which is a musical palindrome. In the Agnus Dei movement of Dufay's mass L'homme armé is this rule noted: Cancer eat plenis et redeat medius ('Let the crab proceed full and return half'). This means that the cantus firmus must be sung first in full note values (and retrograde, since it is a crab), then in halved values and retrograde (that is, normal motion, since it is a crab). Guillaume de Machaut (around 1300 – 1377), was a French composer and poet of the late Medieval era. ... A Rondeau is a form of French poetry with 13 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this characteristic verse structure. ... A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units (such as a strand of DNA) that has the property of reading the same in either direction (the adjustment of punctuation and spaces between words is generally permitted). ... Agnus Dei is a Latin term meaning Lamb of God, and was originally used to refer to Jesus Christ in his role of the perfect sacrificial offering that atones for the sins of man in Christian theology, harkening back to ancient Jewish Temple sacrifices. ... Dufay (left), with Gilles Binchois Guillaume Dufay (Du Fay, Du Fayt) (?August 5, 1397 – November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. ... Mass is a property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter and energy it is equivalent to. ... In music, cantus firmus is the basic material to be set using polyphony. ...

Elaborate use of canon technique

• Josquin Desprez, Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales, Agnus Dei 2: One voice writte with the words 'ex una voce tres' (three voice parts out of one), a mensuration canon in three voices in different tempos.
• Josquin Desprez, Missa L'homme armé sexti toni, Agnus Dei 2: two simultaneous canons in the four upper voices, and at the same time a crab canon in the two lower voices.

Josquin Des Prez Josquin Des Prez (diminutive of Joseph; latinized Josquinus Pratensis) (c. ...

Contemporary canons

The most popular canons heard today are from the Baroque period, such as Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D (Pachelbel's Canon) or every third variation in Bach's Goldberg Variations. What may be George Rochberg's best known work, his String Quartet No. 6, includes a set of variations on the Pachelbel Canon in D. Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony begins with an extensive eight voice canon in the strings. Steve Reich uses a process he calls phasing which is a canon with variable distance between the voices. Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Johann Pachelbel [] (baptized September 1, 1653 – March 3, 1706) was an acclaimed Baroque composer, organist and teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. ... Canon in D Major is Johann Pachelbels most well-known work. ... The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, are a set of keyboard variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. ... George Rochberg, (July 5, 1918, Paterson, New Jersey – May 29, 2005, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) was an American composer. ... Henryk MikoÅ‚aj Górecki (born December 6, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music. ... Steve Reich Steve Reich (born Stephen Michael Reich, October 3, 1936) is an American composer. ... In music the compositional technique phasing, discovered by composer Steve Reich, is that while the same part is played on two musical instruments, one instrumentalist keeps playing in steady tempo, while the other gradually moves ahead of the first until it becomes out of and then back in phase (the...

Media

Image File history File links Pachelbels canon canonical. ... Software development stages Development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Image File history File links J_S_Bach_--_Canon_per_augmentationem_contrario_motu_(dulcimer-piano-harp)_(ornam). ... Software development stages Development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ...

Reading

Canonic Studies: A New Technique in Composition. Bernhard Ziehn; edited and introduced by Ronald Stevenson. Publisher: New York : Crescendo Pub., 1977. ISBN 0-87597-106-7.

See also

• Fugue

In music, a fugue (IPA: ) is a type of contrapuntal composition. ...

External links

• Anatomy of a Canon
• Electro-Acoustic Music Dartmouth.edu: Larry Polansky's Four Voice Canons