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Solutions to monthly puzzle canons

2015

January 2015

 

February 2015

 

March 2015

 

April 2015

 

May 2015

 

June 2015

 

July 2015

 

August 2015

 

September 2015

 

October 2015

 

November 2015

 

December 2015

 

Johann Sebastian Bach, Canon dedicated to Mr. Hudemann, BWV 1074

Score available via IMSLP

http://imslp.org/wiki/Canon_in_A_minor,_BWV_1074_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

 

Recording available on youtube (Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel)

 

 

Johann Sebastian Johann Sebastian Bach, Canon a4, BWV 1073

Score available via IMSLP

http://imslp.org/wiki/Canon_in_A_minor,_BWV_1073_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

 

Recording available on youtube

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Giovanni Battista "Padre" Martini, Canon from Storia della Musica (1762), volume 1, page 14

Score in PDF

 

 

 

Recording not yet available

 

 

Giovanni Battistz "Padre" Martini, Canon from Storia della Musica (1762), volume 1, page 25

Score in PDF

 

 

 

Recording not yet available

 

 

Felix Draeseke, Kanonische Rätsel #1 from Op. 42 (1888), four hands, piano

Score not yet available

 

              <TBA>

 

 

Recording of a suitable performance is not yet available. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

Ludwig van Beethoven, Das Schweigen (Silence is Golden • 1816), WoO 168a

Score in PDF

 

 

 

No recording of the correct solution is available yet. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Teodoro Riccio (a.k.a. Brixianus Italus), Canon a2 in subdipente  

Score in PDF

 

 

 

 

 

Dietrich Buxtehude, Canon duplex per augmentationem a4 (BuxWV 123)

Score in PDF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Franz Joseph Haydn, Menuet al Roverso from Symphony No. 47

PDF Score available via IMSLP here 

 

 

Andreas Romberg, Canon "An die Freunde" for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass

PDF Score on grand staff, SATB chorale style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621), canon for Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1595-1663), eventually organist of St Katharinen in Hamburg. This canon uses the planchant "Ave, maris stella" as cantus firmus. A PDF of the solution can be found here. It appears in the catalog of Sweelinck's works as SwWv 193. The canon was written to Scheidemann to commemmorate the end of Scheidemann's studies with Sweelinck and his departure from Amsterdam in 1614.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Johann Samuel Endler (1694-1762), Canon triplex a 3 (No.3 from 5 Canons) 

 

News Flash (5 February, 2016)

It seems this canon is closely modeled on another by Johann Theile. See the post about this: "Endler's canon is derived from Theile's."

 

Solution

The solution is formed by continuing to augment the motive with each successive entry. It can be found by completing the harmony with a familiar chain of bass suspensions, thereby redeeming the harmonic fourths between the given voices on the third beats of the sixth and seventh measures. Here is a PDF.

 

Puzzle

Some canons score high in contrapuntal artifice, and others such as this one score high in the puzzle category. Extra points for originality and novel combination of textual descriptors.

 

My hint was aimed toward Bach's Canon number 14 [Canon a 4. per Augmentationem et Diminutionem] from the Golberg-ground set (Verscheidene Canone, BWV 1087). Endler's is similar in that the most augmented of the voices is composed of such long note values that all extraneous notes are pared away leaving only the motive itself.

 

The term 'canon triplex' makes sense, albeit in an unorthodox sense, because each voice stands independently; each voice is involved in the relation which forms the increasing augmentation of the motive, marked below. Notice how the term 'canon' is also used correctly, à la Tinctoris, in that a missing voice is supplied through hints, but the modern notion of canon is not observed: There is nothing resembling stretto here.

 

Counterpoint

The resulting musical trio is highly competent, but not all that remarkable. Points off for using a scale as a motive. However, that feature is intricately related to the musical hints at the solution as described above. 

 

Still, the top line could have been more elegantly crafted. One can see the erasure under the final note, where the composer graciously reconsidered using yet another C in the soprano voice.

 

"An die Freunde" Recording of Finale-generated MIDI synthesis, voices doubled on instruments - Andreas Romberg
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