Precursive canons, 1450-1600: Notation, Renotation, and Function

Discussants: Denis Collins (University of Queensland), Patrick Macey (Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester)

Given the many important aspects of Bonnie Blackburn’s research, it is easy to overlook her efforts to draw attention to a category of canon that she termed ‘precursor canon’. This curious contrapuntal phenomenon, which flourished from about 1450 to about 1600, comprises works where, counterintuitively, the notated canonic part does not start first. Instead, the unnotated derived voice, must start (subversively showing up the misleading limitations of later terminology such as dux and comes).

My presentation will explore the following points. (1) The characteristics of this phenomenon. (2) The probable causes of notational precursivity and how they draw our attention to the more significant phenomenon of structural precursivity. (3) Pieces where the notation was subsequently altered, obscuring the structural precursivity. (4) Pieces where vestiges of an earlier notation suggest that someone (composer? copyist? printer?) renotated the music, despite no source surviving with the original notation. (5) Canonic structures, notably by Willaert and his followers, that contain canons with two distinct solutions: one where the derived voice follows the notated one, in the expected manner, and the other where the derived voice must be resolved precursively. This double feature, canon duplex, exploits the juxtaposition of the two different solutions for a single canonic line, displayed across two contrasting settings of hymn verses, two partes of a motet, or two different realizations of a canonic chanson.