Jim Dalton
Dec-22-2008, 9:01pm
A number of years ago I became aware of the fact that Good King Wenceslas works as a canon in inversion --it was mentioned in Douglas R. Hofstader’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid.
Having had a concert postponed due to inclement weather, I decided to work up a version of it as a counterpoint exercise. In the present arrangement, I use the inversion canon between the outer two voices (here, mandolin one and guitar)
I decided to see if I could add two additional canonic voices. These two middle parts are in canon with each other but not with the melody. They are in strict canon through measure 12 but at measure 13 this becomes a canon of pitch with free (non-canonical) rhythm.
The guitar part only goes down to the low "c" of the mandola and therefore can be played on that instrument or an octave mand. or m'cello.
Hope this provides some enjoyment for someone. It isn't a full fledged arrangement -- just a counterpoint exercise, as I said.
Having had a concert postponed due to inclement weather, I decided to work up a version of it as a counterpoint exercise. In the present arrangement, I use the inversion canon between the outer two voices (here, mandolin one and guitar)
I decided to see if I could add two additional canonic voices. These two middle parts are in canon with each other but not with the melody. They are in strict canon through measure 12 but at measure 13 this becomes a canon of pitch with free (non-canonical) rhythm.
The guitar part only goes down to the low "c" of the mandola and therefore can be played on that instrument or an octave mand. or m'cello.
Hope this provides some enjoyment for someone. It isn't a full fledged arrangement -- just a counterpoint exercise, as I said.