Book of Canons

1985-2022 . . . Fourteen canonic studies in three voices (19 minutes)

My compositional fascination with canons began in the early 1970s with study (at the University of Michigan) of Ockeghem’s 15th-century polyphony, the 10 canons in Bach’s 18th-century The Musical Offering, and Webern’s 20th-century Symphonie Op.21. As a young professor in the 1980s teaching 16th-century counterpoint at what was then North Texas State University (now UNT), I used canon as a challenging contrapuntal writing assignment. In 1985, a wind ensemble piece, Parallel Horizons (Homage to Schoenberg), was my first formal composition constructed by canon. In Dark Matter, other contrapuntal writing surrounds an extended canon. Now canon pervades much of my 21st-century writing, a challenging yet stimulating and gratifying approach to texture and continuity of material.

1. Stars // 2. Dawn

3. Valley // 4. Hills // 5. Forest

6. Path // 7. Grotto // 8. Horizon

9. Trail // 10. Canyon // 11. Thicket

12. Moonrise // 13. Creek // 14. Ridge

Analysis of all 14 three-voice canons