5 Part Canon

Category: Strings

String Quintet

Level: Medium Advanced/Advanced
Duration: 12:50

Copyright © 2022 Juan G. García

PDF – Sheet Music, Page 1

The “5-Part Canon” was composed in 1999 and began as a musical exercise as did my “Duet For 2 Flutes”. I wrote this canonic work during the same year I wrote the “Duet For Flute & Guitar.”

I had been experimenting with canonic writing and wanted to push beyond the more common two or three voices. The composition soon took on a life of it’s own as the intricacies of maintaining a strict canon for an extended period of time (over 12 minutes) began a very new and revealing lesson in music composing.

The dux, the initial melody, here being a thematic 3-measure phrase, begins in the 1st violin and is eventually carried down through to the bass. This piece contains no change in time signature but an eventual change in key center at the end.

The ending of this piece brings about a “resolution” into a new tonal center of G with the introduction of a B natural in the upper voice. This B natural slowly gets passed down through the voices and eventually establishes itself as the third of the chord in this new tonal area of G. This episode and or climax of the piece is wrenching at times since there are two key areas vying against each other. This introduction of the B natural occurs at measure 115, which is 14 measures before the end.

The tempo is a Lento quarter note equals 40. In order to “cadence” in G I did have to eventually break the canon in the last five measures. I eventually wrote an alternate ending for the last 12 measures and it is this final version that would be used for performance however, the original version is presented here.