Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Sunday, May 3 2009

Well, now that the semester is done, finals given and graded and semester grades submitted, I'll finally have time to catch up.

I have continued to write my daily canons but didn't have the time to enter them into Finale and post them. I will post several a day until I'm caught up.

Canon in the Symmetrical Enharmonic Pentatonic

The ancient Greek Enharmonic Pentatonic is a scale with two identical tetrachords (as were most Greek scales).

In modern terminology, a tetrachord is a group of pitches spanning the interval of a perfect fourth. The Enharmonic begins with a major third. The remaining minor second completes the tetrachord.

Example (The Greeks constructed their scales in a descending manner):

A F E (A-F is a major 3rd, F-E is a minor second)

As I said, the ancient Greek version used identical tetrachords to make a scale. These are connected by a major second so that the two tetrachords are a perfect fifth apart and will complete the octave.

A F E D Bb A

I wanted to have a scale that was symmetrical around that connective major second, so I created two versions of a symmetrical enharmonic pentatonic. Today's canon uses one of them, I'll get to the other later this week.

A F E is the first tetrachord -- M3, m2

D C# A is the second -- m2, M3

The complete scale is A F E D C# A.

As befits a symmetrical scale, here is a canon in inversion.

(click on image to enlarge)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Another Canon at the Tritone.

This one is based on a scale that combines two minor chords a tritone apart.

A C E and Eb Gb Bb

The scale spelled enharmonically:

A Bb C D# E F#

See the April 30th canon.

(click on image to enlarge)

Lá Bealtaine 2009

Lá Bealtaine is the traditional Celtic celebration of May Day.

I have adapted phrases from a Bealtaine ritual song that Maggi and I wrote together for our book, The Measure of the Year: Singing Through the Seasons

This is an unusual canon in that the intervals of imitation change halfway through. For the first half, each following voice imitates a step lower. Beginning with the upper voice in measure six, each following voice imitates a step higher.

The title, Dlí Bealtaine is Gaeilge (Irish) for Beltane Canon.

(click on image to enlarge)

Thursday, April 30, 2009

A canon at the Tritone

This six-tone scale is made of two major triads a tritone apart.

C E G and F# A# C#

Written enharmonically, the scale is C Db E F# G Bb

Imitation at the tritone in this scale is a no-brainer.

(click on image to enlarge)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A canon on a scale built from the overtone series.

An equal-tempered version of the scale is:

C D E F# G A Bb C

(click on image to enlarge)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A canon at the octave, adapted from an earlier rhythmic canon.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Monday, April 27, 2009

I have been keeping up with my canon writing even during the very busy end-of semester time. I have been falling behind with the posting though. Bear with me and I'll be caught up soon.

I have kept the canons pretty simple, though -- just a function of the schedule...

This one is a canon in augmentation based on a rhythmic canon that I wrote a month or so back.

(click on image to enlarge.)