Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Facsimile of Dodekachordon, Glareanus, p 442. In music, a prolation canon (also called a mensuration canon or proportional canon) is a type of canon, a musical composition wherein the main melody is accompanied by one or more imitations of that melody in other voices.
The four voices each sing in a different mensuration. For instance, in the first "Kyrie", the four voices sing in the meters 2/2, 3/2, 6/4, and 9/4 respectively (in modern notation). Thus, the second voice, in 3/2, sings the same tune as the first voice, in 2/2, but half again as slowly, so the voices gradually pull apart.
In a mensuration canon, each voice sings the same notes, but the length of time each note is sung differs. The opening Kyrie of Josquin's mass contains consecutive mensuration canons based on each phrase of the L'homme armé tune, with the tenor leading each and the other voices entering in turn. [ 7 ]
[1] [2] [3] Only in the 16th century did the word "canon" begin to be used to describe the strict, imitative texture created by such a procedure. [2] The word is derived from the Greek "κανών", Latinised as canon, which means "law" or "norm". In contrapuntal usage, the word refers to the "rule" explaining the number of parts, places of ...
The system of note types used in mensural notation closely corresponds to the modern system. The mensural brevis is nominally the ancestor of the modern double whole note (breve); likewise, the semibrevis corresponds to the whole note (semibreve), the minima to the half note (minim), the semiminima to the quarter note (crotchet), and the fusa to the eighth note (quaver).
Structural plan of the motet and its tenor. Top: Pre-existing Gregorian cantus firmus; middle: Tenor in original notation, with four mensuration signs defining the diminution scheme; bottom: Total structural scheme: Through fourfold repetition of the tenor at different speeds, the motet has a structure of 4×2 parts, with length proportions of 6:4:2:3.
Another class of eye music is when the score is purposely made difficult for the performer. [1] For example, in Benedetto Marcello's cantata Stravaganze d’amore, the continuo part is written entirely in enharmonic chords, that is, "puns" of chord indications spelled with no regard to the key of the rest of the ensemble, but (in equal temperament) indistinguishable audibly from those spelled ...
The term canon derives from the Greek κανών (kanon), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin and Old French into English. [1] The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of official, authentic or approved rules or laws, particularly ecclesiastical; or group of official, authentic, or approved literary or artistic works ...