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Scan 125
Harvard Dictionary Of Music(1950), 1950
14 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1CANON
3laume de Machaut, among which there is a motet "Trop plus est belle" [cf. F. Ludwig, G. de Machaut, Musikalische Werke ii, 71; J. Wolf, Musikalische Schrift-tafeln (1930), p. 23], the tenor of which is to be sung "ad modum rondelli" (rondellus means here, not round, but *rondeau), i.e., as follows: a b a a a b a b, although only a b is notated. Examples of much greater complexity occur in the French MSS of the late *Ars nova [cf., e.g., the "Canon balade" in WoHN i, 375]. In the Flemish era (c. 1450–1550) the canonic inscriptions grow more and more enigmatic so that Tinctoris, in his Diffinitorium (c. 1500) aptly defines the canon as "a rule which shows the intention of the composer in an obscure way" [CS iv, 179]. Among the simpler examples of riddle canon are the various inscriptions indicating retrograde motion [see *Retrograde]. More complicated is the inscription given with the Agnus Dei of Dufay's Missa L'homme armé: "Cancer eat plenis et redeat medius" (The crab proceed full and return half). This means that the tenor should be read first backwards (a crab "proceeds" backwards) in the full note-values, then forward from the beginning, but in halved note-values. Even more oracular are inscriptions such as "Ne recorderis" (literally "Don't remember") which must be read "Ne recorderis," i.e., "Don't remember re," "Don't sing re," "Omit all the notes re," i.e., "D." Riddle canons of particular complication occur in the English 15th-century Missa O quam suavis [new ed. by H. B. Collins (1927)]. For more details see WoHN i, 427; GD ii, 713 ("Inscriptions"); RiHM ii.1, 83–95; ApNPM, 179.
5Less obscure, hence of greater practical importance, are the so-called mensuration canons of the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, a single written part has to be read simultaneously in different *mensurations or *proportions. These canons, sometimes called *fuga, start simultaneously at the intervals of tonic and dominant, but proceed differently, owing to the different value of the longer notes (longa, brevis) under the various signs of mensuration. Accompanying is a "Fuga trium vocum" by Josquin [cf. ApNPM, 180]. An interesting example of a "group-
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9canon" for two lutes occurs in Vincenzo Galilei's Fronimo (1563; see *Editions XIV, 4) under the name "Fuga."
11In the 17th century, canons were frequently devised in such a way as to admit of a number of solutions. A well-known example is a "Non nobis domine" (attributed, probably wrongly, to W. Byrd), which admits 6 or 7 solutions differing according to number of parts, to the intervals, and to the distance of the imitating parts [cf. GD iii, 642f]. Pier Francesco Valentini (d. 1654) wrote a canon which boasts of more than 2000 solutions. At the same time, the English provided a great number of popular canons in their *catches. It was chiefly through Bach's genius that the canon again obtained an important position in musical art, a position which it has maintained to the present day. Particularly noteworthy are Bach's Kanonische Variationen über das Weihnachtslied and the canons in his Goldberg Variations. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, contributed many charming examples to the popular repertory, but also used canon technique in their sonatas (mostly in the menuets) and variations. A well-known example of a more recent date is the last movement of César Franck's Violin Sonata (1886) which, however, employs a rather facile technique, while Brahms made a more ingenious use of the canon, e.g., in his [address hidden] (for women's voices), op. 113.
13Lit.: S. Jadassohn, Canon and Fugue (1899); C. H. Kitson, Invertible Counterpoint and Canon (1927); E. Prout, Double Counterpoint and Canon; B.
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