Enharmonic Perpetual Canon No. 5 (Based on Mozart's KV 562c).

So I decided to convert the theme of Mozart's perpetual canon at the 2nd for String Quartet in C major (KV 562c) into one of my enharmonic canons by keeping the same melodic intervals across all its entries.

As opposed to the four previous installments of this genre, this one is exclusively instrumental, as I struggled to redistribute the voices so that the theme would fit the vocal ranges of a 6-part choir. Partly for the same reason, the string sextet section is comprised of 4 violins and 2 cellos, as the viola ranges appeared unsuitable for the middle voices without significantly altering the whole structure of the canon.

Neither is it technically a dual canon by tritone transposition as the others, but instead returns to its initial starting point without the need for a secondary repetition a minor 2nd lower per each iteration. This is due to the fact that, instead of following the circle of fourths, each entry starts a major 2nd lower from the previous one, thus having the first note of each of the 6 entries in this canon trace the whole-tone hexatonic scale back to its inception.

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Hallo @Fugax Contrapunctus!

I’m astonished how it works to create such a harmonically balanced piece while stepping down a whole note for each subsequent voice entry!

Since @PeterthePapercomPoser also presented a canon based on different scales in one of his recent Persichetti exercises, I would like to know if you transposed some of the canon imitations into other modes or scales to achieve this harmonic consistency?

I didn't check it out thoroughly, as I initially thought you had changed from minor to major to minor in the first three entries, without noticing that there is no F# in violin 2 in bar 4.

No, the three entries are identical. But now, I think I’ve probably figured out the trick: The theme starts on the lydian fourth, F# in the theme being in C major – at least for the first four bars. However, a few bars later the melody starts to descend to the flats handing over the harmonic center to the next voice. So the descent is inherent in the melody which might be a bit difficult to learn due to its harmonic instability.

While being heavily repetitive by its nature, the entire canon is not boring – at least not at this length. If being part of a larger work, such as an oratorio, I could imagine that it would be contrasted by a more declarative and stable section.

28 minutes ago, Wieland Handke said:

Hallo @Fugax Contrapunctus!

I’m astonished how it works to create such a harmonically balanced piece while stepping down a whole note for each subsequent voice entry!

Since @PeterthePapercomPoser also presented a canon based on different scales in one of his recent Persichetti exercises, I would like to know if you transposed some of the canon imitations into other modes or scales to achieve this harmonic consistency?

I didn't check it out thoroughly, as I initially thought you had changed from minor to major to minor in the first three entries, without noticing that there is no F# in violin 2 in bar 4.

No, the three entries are identical. But now, I think I’ve probably figured out the trick: The theme starts on the lydian fourth, F# in the theme being in C major – at least for the first four bars. However, a few bars later the melody starts to descend to the flats handing over the harmonic center to the next voice. So the descent is inherent in the melody which might be a bit difficult to learn due to its harmonic instability.

While being heavily repetitive by its nature, the entire canon is not boring – at least not at this length. If being part of a larger work, such as an oratorio, I could imagine that it would be contrasted by a more declarative and stable section.

Greetings @Wieland Handke!

The F-natural in bars 3 and 4 of the 1st and 2nd entry is very much intentional, even though it does generate a certain degree of instability not present in the original, fully tonal rendition of Mozart's own canon. In fact, I should thank you for highlighting the matter of accidentals, as the previous version did not, in fact, feature completely real transpositions of the theme. There were a handful of mistakes every 3rd bar, not contrapuntal, but harmonic and thematic, as the continuity and integrity of the transpositions was broken with leading tone and its minor 3rd/5th of a dominant chord being raised a semitone higher. All of that has now been corrected, so unless any more oversights of mine were to resurface, every single entry should now be a real transposition to the lower major 2nd of the main 18-bar-long subject.

I'm glad to learn that the current length of this canon would prevent it from seeming far too repetitive to the eyes of an educated listener. Indeed, I was worried it might end up sounding excessively mechanical despite the flowing timbre of legato strings, as monotony may distort even the most sophisticated of musical devices into pure pure noise after far too many identical, tiresome reiterations. It's a relief to know that to you it did not appear to be the case here, and I must thank you for your acute observations, for otherwise I might not have come to realize that the transpositions were not 100% exact.

I should also probably check @PeterthePapercomPoser's take on the Persichetti exercises, especially considering this canon on different scales you just mentioned. I'm anticipating a gold mine of modal/post-tonal contrapuntal solutions! Thank you for this recommendation as well.