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Polytonal Canon, how to go about the fourth bar?


caters

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I am writing a polytonal 4 voice canon, where each voice is in a different key like this:

  • Soprano: Eb major
  • Alto: Bb major
  • Tenor: F major
  • Bass: C major

But, I'm not sure how to go about the fourth bar, where the Soprano voice enters. I have found 3 lines for the dux that don't have parallel or hidden fifths and octaves. I have no idea which one to use. By the way, the dux in my canon is the bass voice. One uses a leap, another prepares a seventh, and yet another suspends a note across the bar. I think I prefer the suspension, since that both means that the "strong beat seventh" sound won't be present and the voices don't have to move as much. I think the one I would want to use the least would be the leap, since it is a leap of a fifth. But the leap might work better contrapuntally, I don't know, checking all the intervals in 4 voices is a bit labor intensive for me. Just so you know, I am trying to use Baroque counterpoint for this polytonal canon.

So, which one of these 3 lines should I use? Or is there something that would work better in the bass voice in bar 4 than all 3 of these lines I thought of?

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7 hours ago, caters said:

I have found 3 lines for the dux that don't have parallel or hidden fifths and octaves

I don't think this fact has the same importance as in tonal music.

With multiple tonalities is unavoidable you have clashes and those kind of intervals

Check teh variation II of Lulú Suite by Berg in the form of a polytonal canon ( C / Gb / Am / Eb)

 

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