7a: A Canon by Johann Walter

The Canon-Function allows you to experiment with imitations of a melody at various temporal offsets and diatonic transpositions. Doing so you may interactively learn to satisfy contrapuntal rules.

If you a familiar with the basic setup it is instructive to get into a dialog with canons in original compositions.

The score shows the opening 5 measures of a Latin motet "In die purificationis Mariae" by Johann Walter (Sämtliche Werke, Vol. III, p.28, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel, 1955).

The imitation of a melodic subject is a typical technique of the polyphonic composition of Johann Walter's time. In this particular case the entries of the imitations are quite dense.

The Alto starts, followed by the Bass right on the second note of the Alto. Soprano and Tenor follow accordingly with respect to their predecessors.

The Bass imitates the Alto one octave below. Likewise, the Tenor imitates the Soprano one octave below. The Soprano imitates the Alto with a temporal offset of 2 notes a fifth above.

In the penultimate measure the imitation breaks up (as indicated by the thick blue lines) and turns into a cadence over G.

In order to understand the underlying counterpoint, it is useful to reduce the score to a simplified note-against-note setting. The omitted notes are thereby classified as passing notes.

All intervals are consonant, the only exception being the suspended primary fourth between Bass and Soprano in the cadence.

A little curiosity are parallel fifths between Alto and Tenor. One parallel occurs in the original (a-e -> g-d).

Another parallel comes up in the note-against-note reduction of the canon (c-g -> g-d).

With the Canon Function you may play the reduction in four voices. Note, though, that the parallel fifths (c-g -> g-d) are not recommended by the program. But you may play them.

[NB: Walter cannot be made responsible for this parallel fifth in the reduction. In the original there is an intermediate note b between c and g in the tenor.

One may propose a more contrapuntal note-against-note reduction (ignoring the canon) where the note b is integrated:

Likewise you may play any pair or triple of voices. Starting from Walter's canon you may inspect other possibilities. Try also to avoid the parallel fifths. With the Note-Against-Note mechanism it is not possible to play the original score. Nevertheless there is an instructive work-around. If you choose a temporal offset of 4 notes between successive voice entries, you may split the long notes as shown below.