Friday, March 13, 2009

I was thinking about the Balinese Kecak (also called the Monkey Chant) today and I remembered that it has canonic features as well. These are quite difficult to hear because of the complexity of the resulting texture and the number of parts.

Here is one of a number of versions on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ZT-xzHVno&feature=related

It is a bit easier to see on my transcription (of another version -- there are many).

The canons are as follows (all based on a sixteenth note unit):

--the first three parts are based on 3, 3, 2

--parts 5 & 6 are based on 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2
part 4 is very closely related to these two with 3, 3, 3, 3, 4

(click on image to enlarge)


My canon for today is a cak in 9/8 time which results in a kind of Irish Slip Jig-Cak.

There are two canons in the cak parts:

--the first 3 parts are based on an eighth note unit -- 2, 1, 5, 1

--parts four through six are based on sixteenth notes -- 3, 7, 6

I've also included a vocal ostinato canon in four voices to create a dorian mode harmonic accompaniment. This is a canon with two voices in unison and another with two a fifth above the first. Both of these imitate at one measure distance.

(click on image to enlarge)