Prolation canon

In music, a prolation canon or mensuration canon is a type of canon, a musical composition wherein the main melody is accompanied by one or more imitations of that melody in other voices. Not only do the voices sing or play the same melody, they do so at different speeds (or prolations, a mensuration term that dates to the medieval and Renaissance eras). Accompanying voices may enter either simultaneously or successively. Prolation canons are among the most difficult to write, and are relatively rare in the repertory, though they are most common in the early Renaissance and from the 20th century to the present.

Examples of prolation canons from different eras include Le Ray Au Soleyl by Johannes Ciconia (late 14th century), the entire Missa prolationum by Johannes Ockeghem (mid-15th century), in which each separate section of the mass explores a different prolation (or different gap between entries and relative speed of each voice), the Agnus Dei from the Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales by Josquin des Prez (late 15th century), the Agnus Dei from the Missa L'homme armé by Pierre de la Rue (early 16th century), the Canon a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem, the last in a set of 14 canons written as an appendix to the Goldberg Variations, by Johann Sebastian Bach, and in the 20th century, the Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt (1976). Larry Polansky has written numerous four voice prolation canons whose melodies are permutations of a limited number of elements. A particularly striking example occurs twice in the opening movement of Symphony No. 15 (Shostakovich), first in the strings (Fig. 27) and later in the woodwind (Fig. 47). Both these passages create complex textures that contribute powerfully to the strange and enigmatic atmosphere of what was to be the great Russian composer's symphonic 'Swan Song' (1971).

Example of a prolation canon. Agnus Dei from Missa l'homme armé super voces musicales, by Josquin des Prez

In the example, the first 12 bars of the Agnus Dei II of the earlier of the two masses Josquin wrote based on the L'homme armé tune, each voice sings the same music, but at different speeds. The top voice is barred in 3/4 meter for clarity. The slowest voice is the one in the middle; the lowest voice sings the same music at twice the speed of the slowest; and the highest voice sings the same music at three times the speed of the slowest. In the original score only one part is given: a notation over the single line of music indicates the three prolations to be used, and a second notation over the line indicates where each voice should end if sung correctly.

References

• Article "Canon," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Harvard Anthology of Music. Two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1949. ISBN 0-674-39300-7
• The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5