Canonica, for Woodwind Quintet (2021)

A canon is essentially a round, but usually of a more sophisticated construction that Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Musical canons are interesting puzzles to work out – both for the composer and for the listener. All of these brief pieces employ canons of one sort or another, with varying degrees of freedom, continuously. Total performance time 16-18 minutes; challenging. $20 for score, parts, and demo recordings; order here. A demo of the entire March can be heard here.

I. Fantasia

This time-honored title connotes an element of freedom and whimsy on the part of the composer, allowing for a free flow of ideas not constrained by any strict structure. Though this music is based in a very strict device – the canon – it nonetheless manifests a rather changeable character such as one might compose if simply and spontaneously following one’s ear. Elements of lyricism, turbulence, and spunk all compete for attention. About 2:30.

II. March

Led steadily by the commanding bassoon, the melodies above it suggest that not everyone is marching willingly or in a straight line. Later, the bassoon and horn, sounding some bugle-call-ish lines, attempt to restore order... but their discipline begins to crumble as well, and eventually it all stumbles to a somewhat chaotic end. About 2:35.

III. Nocturne

The English horn, bass clarinet, horn, and bassoon render a sort of dark, quietly growling primal ooze, perhaps in the nighttime of some distant planet, while the piccolo plays the part of a darting, ephemeral mite flying above it. All of this is alive and interconnected, as mysterious and intriguing as it is disquieting. In this movement, flute doubles piccolo, oboe doubles English horn, and clarinet doubles bass clarinet; the bassoon is also encouraged to play the part on contrabassoon if available. About 2:35.

IV. Caccia

The caccia was an important 14th-century Italian vocal genre consisting of two melodic lines in canon with a slower-moving instrumental line underneath. Meaning “hunt” in Italian, the caccia often included realistic sounds or descriptions of the hunt or a bustling market; here, I imagine children chasing each other happily about a park. The delays between melodic parts are uniformly short. Though there are periods of tension (a tantrum perhaps?), it ends on a sunny note. About 3:15.

V. Fantasia II and Fughetta

Another brief, spontaneous Fantasy introduces some of the melodic & harmonic ideas to be used later in the movement.  Much of the harmony is treated obliquely, i.e. changing chords or key areas one part at a time rather than at a single precise moment. A fughetta is a shorter and often less strict version of the fugue, a term that descends from the Italian fuga, in turn related to the Latin verb fugare, to chase.  In the Middle Ages little distinction was made between canon and fugue, but by the Baroque the genre had been codified into a distinct set of techniques and gave rise to many towering masterworks - including, of course, the many great fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Some of those techniques are retained here in a joyous romp that exploits essentially the same melody as the first Fantasia. About 3:25.