Comparación de la estrategia con los criterios

nother way that the Biber ciacona-canon is different from the Pachelbel canon is that it is more difficult to clearly separate the variations from each other. While it is still a chaconne, characterised by thirty-two repetitions of the bass ostinato, the variations written over it are of varying lengths. Many of the variations do follow the familiar pattern of playing a principle variation, followed by a complimentary variation, and then one or two throw-away accompanimental variations.

It should be noted that since this canon is for only two canonic voices, a single accompanimental variation is completely sufficient to prevent the voices from competing for the listener’s attention.

However, Biber does sometime use more accompanimental variations, which has an interesting effect:

since the Pachelbel canon always uses just enough accompanimental variations to keep the player busy while the other two violins play the principle variations, it doesn’t really ever come to a resting point, the momentum continues almost perpetually (as is true of most baroque fugues, another genre that Pachelbel and the composers associated with him are well known for); meanwhile, the extra accompanimental variations used by Biber sometimes cause the principle variations to become separated from each other, which creates a sense of repose and separation, a kind of bridge, giving some relief from the perpetual motion that might otherwise result.

At other points in the ciacona-canon, Biber doesn’t seem to make use of accompanimental variations at all, particularly towards the end, when the whole piece appears to be through-composed.

This is particularly true of the nine-eight section, when the variations begin to become somewhat non-descript and not easily distinguished from each other, with no clear sense of separation between them, further strengthening the notion that this portion represents a distinct section, separate from the rest of the chaconne.

A

As to the variations themselves, we can distinguish, discounting the theme and its da capo, some eight variations with varying lengths and with or without accompanimental variations to separate them.

Interestingly, there does seem to be a pattern regarding which variations include accompanimental variations. Figure XVII-1, below, shows the variations of the ciacona-canon. Discounting the opening theme and the closing gigue-like sections, we have an overall two-part structure. The Theme (Variation Group A) is tied to Variation Group B through accompanimental variations – though it is slightly separated from it by using two accompanimental variations. Group B and Group C, both relatively simple, are connected directly through a single accompanimental variation. Group D, on the other hand, is more complex, with more subvariations, and is separated from those around it by rests on both sides. Group E starts with an accompanimental variation (after rests, so it does not overlap with the previous group, and so behaves like a bridge, just like after the theme, and helps to articulate the two-part form. Groups E and F are both relatively simpler again, and are again connected directly via a single accompanimental variation, while Group G is again more complex, with more subvariations, and is once more set apart from the other subvariations by rests on boths sides. The pattern, then, after the theme and before the “gigue”

is two simpler, shorter variations connected by an accompanimental variation, followed by a longer, more complex variation bookended by rests; this pattern repeats twice.

Table XVII-1 Characteristics of Variation Groups in the Biber Ciacona-canon

Variation Group Preceded By Number of Subvariations Followed By

A (Theme) Basso 2 2 Accomp. (1 shared)

Notice that, if we ignore the theme and the closing gigue-like section, the remaining six groups form two groups of almost identical properties.

Figure XVII-1 The Variations of the Biber Ciacona-Canon

Blue rectangles show principle variations of the groups, while accompanimental variations are outside the rectangles. Red lines show accompanimental variations that are shared between adjacent groups of variations.

Page 1

Figure XVII-1 The Variations of the Biber Ciacona-Canon

The accompanimental variation highlighted in light blue in group E is not shared, and serves as an introduction to the second half.

Figure XVII-1 The Variations of the Biber Ciacona-Canon Page 3.

Table XVII-1 summarises the properties of the variations with respect to the groupings and the presence or absence of accompanimental variations.

XVIII. Voice-leading: Catch-like elements of the Biber ciacona-canon

he Biber ciacona-canon has a particularly interesting characteristic: it borrows elements of the catch. The catch is a specialised form of the round, in which the interdependence of the various cycles of the canon is increased by careful design of each cycle so that the true lead melody is not apparent from a glance at the score, and will not be perceived until all parts are present, at which point the true (hidden) lead part pops out of the mix as a composite of the various strains.⁶⁸

Think of it like a handbell choir. In a handbell choir, each member has only a small selection (often two) of the bells needed to make up the scale. The music will be distributed among the parts so that, whichever note is called for, it will be written into the part of the performer who has that bell. Looking at any one part, it is generally not possible to find the melody, but when all parts are played together, the melody pops out. In the same way, the true lead part of a catch is distributed among the different cycles of the canon, such that it doesn’t become apparent until all the parts are present.

68 (Dyk and Taylor, viii)

T

Figure XVIII-1 The distribution of notes in a handbell choir

The melody is the first phrase of the familiar Christmas carol “Joy to the World”. Each chorister has only two bells, and the notes are written into the correct part at the moment in which it is called form. Only when all are heard together is the true melody apparent.

In a true catch, the lyrics typically play a substantial role in this effect. The words will be carefully selected so that the sounds needed to create the hidden message are distributed among various parts.

Often, the hidden message conveyed by the composite is ribald, or otherwise risqué,⁶⁹ while the composer, if confronted about the impropriety of it, can claim ignorance and provide a copy of the otherwise mundane lyrics that each singer is actually signing, to “prove” that the hidden message came about by accident.

Composing a catch often relies on the technique of rhythmic counterpoint, where the beginnings of notes in one voice (or canonic cycle) are offset from those in the next canonic cycle. A simple example would be to have (at a delay of one measure) two minims in the first measure, and then a syncopated figure of a quarter rest, then a minim, then a crochet in the next measure, so that, when heard together, the notes in one voice will begin on beats one and three, while the notes in the other voice will begin on beats two and four. The result will be that, in the composite, it will seem that there is one note per beat,

69 (Dyk and Taylor, viii). See also (Catch, 152): “The 17^th-century catch became a sophisticated and often intricate genre, developing the manner of treating the words that was to remain characteristic. This involved calculating the words so that the interplay among the parts produced new combinations, usually comic or (especially during the Restoration period) bawdy in effect.” c.f. (Mann, The Study of Fugue 1958/1987, 9, footnote 3): “Hawkins defines [a catch] as that species of round ‘wherein, to humor some conceit in the words, the melody is broken, and the sense interrupted in one part, and caught again or supplied by another.’ (Grove’s Dictionary, 3^rd ed., 1946.)”

[emphasis added]

Figure XVIII-2 A simple catch

The regular lyrics say “This ache is catching.” When overlaid upon itself, it seems to say “This is ache catch,”

which would sound like “This is a catch”. Compare this to the handbell choir (Figure XVIII-1).

but in truth, these notes are distributed among both voices (Figure XVIII-2). A more spectacular example can be found in Figure XVIII-3.

Obviously, the canons we are considering cannot be true catches, because they are not rounds (they do not repeat the same few measures over and over again), and they do not have lyrics. Nevertheless, they can display catch-like characteristics – within certain provisions. A typical catch often is able to make its message pop out based on the prominence of various vocal articulations (i.e. hard consonants tend to stand out). A non-vocal canon must use alternative methods, such as voice-crossing, or especially strategically placed rests to achieve this effect. While many composers use rests to solve harmonic and

Figure XVIII-3 A more complex catch

While many short ribald ideas pop out of the mix, the highlighted section is particularly clear, and much more risqué than the linear lyrics.

Transcribed by author from (Dyk and Taylor, 217).

voice-leading problems while writing canons,⁷⁰ the way that rests are used in a catch and catch-like passages in canons is an altogether more sophisticated phenomenon. Strictly speaking, there is nothing particularly special in the idea of using offset rests to cause an alternation of notes between voices – this idea has a long tradition, going back to the hocket of the mediæval era.⁷¹ The catch is that, in a catch (or similar canon), the rests are not alternating between two distinct parts, but between two cycles of the same part, which requires a more careful compositional technique, because – as always with a canon – the decisions you make in one cycle to complement the previous cycle will also impact the next cycle.

For example, the Pachelbel canon contains two subvariations (B

S

^{and B}

S

’) that display a catch-like effect between them (Figure XVIII-4). Both are characterised by alternating quavers and eight rests.

However, the former places the notes on the beats, and the later places the notes on the off-beats, so that they together create a single part. It was not commented upon during our examination of the Pachelbel canon because it is a rather unspectacular example, and because it is an accompanimental

70 Consider for example:

“A way of easing the prevention of chord-tone doublings in the resulting canon, is the insertion of rests between two short duces…” (van Geenen, 203).

71 “In polyphony of the 13^th and 14^th centuries, a stylistic device or a self-contained composition characterized by the distribution of a melodic line between two voices in such a way that as one sounds, the other is silent.”

(Hocket, 392)

Figure XVIII-4 The catch-like texture of variations BS ^{and B}

S

’ of the Pachelbel canon

These two parts, back-to-back in the dux, are arranged to alternate notes, together forming a single part. In this case, as an

accompanimental variation, spreading the melody out over two parts thins the texture, resulting in even less music competing with the true variation for the listener’s attention.

variation that is generally not heard in the contest for the listener’s attention. A similar technique can be seen in the Merula chiacona in measures 17-20 (Figure XVIII-6).

The Biber ciacona-canon, on the other hand, contains a much more spectacular implementation of this technique. Beginning in measure thirty-seven, Biber begins to include entire measures of rests, alternating with entire measures of scalar passages. Like our previous examples, for the entire first cycle, the scale comes first as the first half of the cycle, followed by the rest for the entire remainder of the cycle;

in the next cycle, the rest comes first, followed by the scale. The composite makes it sound as though the various scales are all played by a single violin, while in fact, they are played by alternating first and second

Figure XVIII-6 Catch-like texture of the Merula Chiacona

A

B

Figure XVIII-5 Similar catch-like texture in the Biber ciacona-canon and the Merula Chiacona (A) Composite scales in the Biber Ciacona-Canon; (B) the theme of the Merula Chiacona.

violins. A similar technique can be seen in the opening of the Merula Chiacona where the theme is followed by a rest to allow it to be presented again in the comes (Figure XVIII-5).

It is important to note that in the Biber ciacona-canon, the extended rests between these scalar passages are not truly silent; there is still the basso continuo, with the cello continuing to repeat the bass ostinato, and the harpsichord likely taking a larger role during this rest to smooth out the awkward sound created by ending a scale on the last subdivision of a measure, without any notes on the next downbeat.

A skilled continuo player might even decide to anticipate the call-and-response-like texture that will exist between the dux and comes in the next cycle, and chose to answer the scale the same way (in a sense, behaving like a kind of ante-dux, as it would be like playing the part one cycle ahead of the dux itself).⁷²

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