puzzle canon

January 2018 - Sol post vesperas declinat - Ivan Maria Nanino

This canon appears in Pietro Cerone's Musica Theorica Pratica, vol. 22, p. 1081. He writes:

 

"Con el sobredicho titulo, solamente da à entnder que se abaxa en la Repetition: mas en que voz comiencen las tes partes siguientes, no lo dize. Pero en quanto à mi, no hallo que puedan hazer otro principio, si no sete que aqui vemos."

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The aforementioned title only implies that it is based on Repetition: but in what voice do the following three parts begin, [Nanino] does not say so. But when it comes to me, I can't find that they can follow another principle, if not this one that we see.

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And Cerone gives these incipits which give the upper two parts an octave lower than in my solution.

 

I do see my canto registrally isolated in measure 5, but this is soon permanently alleviated once the alto enters in measure 7. This more typical voicing allows the canon to modulate downward in a less muddy texture.

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Naturally, the canon is perpetual and has no ending. But I the notation has to end somewhere.