The Magic Table That Lets You Compose Canons Over A Cantus Firmus (1596)

For the footnotes and other extra information see the following link:
www.earlymusicsources.com/you...
Created by Elam Rotem and Alon Schab, April 2024
Music examples by Leonardo Bartolotto (viols) and Elam Rotem (harpsichord).
Special thanks to Denis Collins, Peter Schubert, Tim Braithwaite, Sean Curtice, Loren Ludwig and Anne Smith.
Support us on PATREON: / earlymusicsources
Support us by getting an Awesome T-shirt: teechip.com/stores/earlymusic...
Support us by getting a poster of Bathe's table: www.teechip.com/bathe

[@Divergent_Integral]

For those who want to delve more deeply into this matter, from a modern, mathematically informed perspective, I can definitely recommend Stefan Prey's PhD thesis "Algorithmen zur Satztechnik und ihre Anwendung auf die Analyse". (Unfortunately only in German.)

[@aleksandarbrzic8351]

Why "unfortunately" ? Could it be a wonderful reason to learn a new language?

[@Divergent_Integral]

@@aleksandarbrzic8351 Many people simply don't have the resources (such as sufficient spare time) to learn a new language, especially up to the level where reading scientific literature in that language becomes feasible. On the other hand, it is true that German is one of the most useful languages to learn for anyone with an interest in music theory.

[@Lalulalala824]

​@@aleksandarbrzic8351what world do you live in? Lmao

[@clercflorian4637]

@@aleksandarbrzic8351 because Life is too short to learn German 😉 / it's a joke

[@mer1red]

Can you download it from somewhere? I cannot find a link.

[@Hwyadylaw]

Beautiful presentation. (And I cannot stress enough how crucial the dancing skeleton was to aid my understanding)

[@dorontirosh]

Thank you for this amazing episode. For me, this channel is life-changing.

[@antheagrasselli9489]

Many thanks.❤

[@maximilianraab18]

Thank you Elam for including the score to the opening jingle! I have been trying to learn it by ear for some time, but now I can finally play it!

[@liquensrollant]

It's wonderful to have these hidden corners of music history brought to light, both by the scholars doing the research and by explaining it on this channel. This channel continues to be a source of delight. Thank you again!

[@taylordiclemente5163]

This is a great companion to Peter Schubert's canonic methods. Thank you!

[@mattcavoto]

Thank you so much for this episode! It would be very interesting to learn more about the change from 6 to 4 syllable solfege in England. And you've inspired me to see about making a derivative chart for placing the cantus firmus above the canon now.

[@maxjohn6012]

Dear Elam, thank you *so much* for this. I've been hoping you'd do something about early English music for years, and this was so much more interesting and useful than I imagined! What a fascinating tool, can't wait to try.

[@maxjohn6012]

It's a lot harder than you make it look ....

[@ruthenusalbus5609]

It would be also very nice to see another series on England's Great Musical Epochue series - e.g., about Rules how to Compose by Giovanni Coprario, New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Counterpoint by Thomas Campion or about hints of musical craft in Matthew Locke's Melothesia...

[@puffinwrangler7557]

Fabulous, thank you. I had to learn Palestrina's style from Knud Jeppeson's book during my bachelor's degree. Now I'm inspired tonight to try Bathe's table!

[@lcerante]

Elam, thank you for another masterclass! This episode could be a wonderful segway to Costanzo Festa's 125 counterpoints on La Spagna. I would love to see an episode where you dissect his counterpoints! Please do consider! =)

[@tobiashaak3568]

I wrote my bachelor thesis in 2010 on possibilities in improvised two-part canons to make a proper cadence at the end of it by using specific phrases through the leader to indicate the end of the canon for the follower.

[@kaybrown4010]

Please tell us more about the English four note solfège. Very interesting video, Elam!

[@dannuttle9005]

It took this channel, after more than twenty years of watching the show, to make me realize that Professor Farnsworth is the only character whose picture is immediately and automatically associated with a single phrase. I plan to write a guide on this subject that will still be debated four hundred years from now. The lower Farnsworth starts with a befuddled, "What?", the middle Farnsworth responds with either an "Oh you!" or an "I am already in my pyjamas", the upper Farnsworth gives a high-pitched laugh, and then all of them resolve in a perfect authentic "good news, everyone."

[@dannuttle9005]

Admit it: You just heard three Professor Farnsworths singing "good news, everyone" in a perfect authentic cadence.

[@WilliamFord972]

“…let’s see how it works and how you could also use it to create fancy canons.” [Seamlessly cuts to a commercial playing “I’ll stop the world and melt with you”] 😂

[@ArturJD96]

"The way how the table works is quite simple". IT"S NOT ~ the above is the summary of how Early music works.

[@edwardblair4096]

It's like how Morley's "Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music" is actually somewhat complicated and takes a fair amount of diligent study to fully understand

[@jddrew1000]

This was so well done!

[@Beryllahawk]

Wonderful video! As always, presented with great clarity and just the right amount of humor! Thank you!

[@aleksandarbrzic8351]

Finally a new video! Thanks! Great stuff as usual and I love your calm and measured narration...

[@inguiable]

Thank you for your work!!!

[@gidimeir]

Wonderful, clearly informative and very well researched and presented. Bravo!

[@Saturos02]

Fantastic work and presentation, I'll definitely give this a try!

[@1974gringojuan]

Brilliant as ever!

[@timothyj.bowlby5524]

These/this episode(s) are/is so much fun! Thanks.

[@L_S_Barros]

Great as always, Elam!

[@matthieulamiable4757]

Incredibly useful content. 👍👍

[@DrLogical987]

Absolutely fascinating

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

Thank you so much! This is amazing.

[@carlstenger5893]

Bravo! This was a fascinating episode. Thanks so much!

[@Miguel-zp9yp]

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Many thanks for your excellent work!

[@weloverobospam]

Ahhh! The basket of vegetables that shows up on the table behind Elam.🤣

[@carlasker9285]

It is like programming a DX-7. This was HARD.

[@PawePoskon]

A crossover I didn’t suspect, but appreciate!

[@billclarkcomposer7719]

A wonderfully clear explanation. Well done.

[@kamalacalderoni6006]

OMG you are fabulous! Thank you so much. That is relly fun ❤

[@vanessasx]

So interesting !! Keep making videos

[@SayBootsey]

Was just telling David how i'm such a noob when it comes to improvising canons. Now you drop this video. Thanks 😀 PS and "i play for you because it's nice" is hands down the best reason for music-making ever 🙂

[@chezmeb]

Wonderful. I have written canon at the unisson but I am planning to work on different intervals this summer. This will be usefull! Great video! Thanks!

[@ajjivackovic1782]

YAY beautiful special intro

[@gitasong]

OMG-I'm in love!! 🥰🥰🥰

[@HighWideandHandsome]

Excellent episode. I wonder if this idea might not be outside your the scope of your channel-and if it is, then pass over to other things-but would you consider doing an episode on the practice of composers copying out works by others to improve their own craft?

[@Perryz7]

I am inspired by this video to try my hand at some canons (and then proceed to break every rule in the book for funsies.) Thank you Elam!

[@valtteripennanen4043]

Yaas, a new video.

[@diegomaugeri4038]

Wait, can this be used to compose a subject and a countersubject in a fugue? My life just took a turn! Edit: I spoke too soon... I tried a canon in one at the unison on a passamezzo as a cantus firmus (thinking it would've been easier) and by following the table and the observation I ended up with no available choices in the first two notes! Brilliant...

[@VaughanMcAlley]

A subject and countersubject of a fugue have to be invertable. This is a different thing, though just as interesting, with different intervals allowed according to what interval the inversion will happen at. If you’re Bach you might make them invertible at three intervals at once!

[@matteogarzetti]

Wonderful vegetables!!!

[@ArturJD96]

Isn't the observation 5 and 6 made for expecting perfect intervals in the final cadences (or avoiding such a situation)? The canons in Bathe treatise you transcribed all end with third and without fifth, so he might have wished to avoid having the final cadence only with 1 and 5.

[@RikardPeterson]

In the description of what a canon is, you end with "and many other tricks" after having listed almost every kind of canon I have encountered. I'd love to learn more…

[@ajames283]

My favorite canon over a cantus firmus is by Johann Friedrich Fasch: Canon in F Major Trio Sonata (FaWV N:F5) Strict canon at the fourth below.

[@DanielAlvarezVeizaga]

Good to know that canons are like vegetables. ❤

[@Johnwilkinsonofficial]

Schoenberg referred a few times to the "secrets of the netherlanders" when discussing counterpoint and ive always thought he had certain things like this in mind. do you know more about what Schoenberg meant there ?

[@adolflazary5864]

Hola hola que alegría mis maestros queridos . Gracias

[@OlivierAtheba]

wow, merci

[@aingeru11]

thanks a lot for the video, sir, one question, in your realization (also in Bathe´s), on second bar, between C F and Dux (leader) there is an octave, then a fifht and again an octave. Is that correct???? Thanks a lot, very useful video

[@Sathrandur]

A small note: the word _canon_ is from Greek; indeed it is used in Latin, but it is actually borrowed there directly as a transliteration of the Greek word.

[@danielfajardo9092]

I LOVE U ELAM ROTEM U DESERVE HEAVEN

[@carlosandres7006]

I completely agree 😊❤

[@claudiofornasari1263]

Dear Mr. Rotem, your channel is just a miracle for Music enthusiasts! Let me suggest a slight correction to this video: "canon" is not from Latin, but from ancient Greek. Thanks again for your wonderful job! All best!

[@charleskleesattel6477]

Interesting. I wish I had had this chart when I was taking 16th c. counterpoint many years ago.

[@dotsonpaper]

I look forward to each of your videos the way some people look forward to new Christopher Nolan films.

[@lucascecim9102]

Shape-note singers nowadays are familiar with Fasola System of solmization.

[@DallasCrane]

The mental math of delay pedals

[@vannave5761]

nice

[@NidusFormicarum]

Interesting, since I have actually written two consequtive canons over a cantus firmus as a variation in a large series of variations over a Swedish children's song. The style is of course much more modern, but the basic principles are the same. In my case, I have the cantus firmus - the song - at the top and it is varied/ornamented, but that they could be ornamented pretty early in history, right? Since I have orchestrated the piece, I have added a forth part with sustained note values to make the movement feel more full and calmer, but that part is not doubled several times as the pricipal voices are.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I just discovered a treatise, Yses of Ye Olde Wah Wah Pedal.

[@EdgarFGirtainIV]

I bet observations 5 and 6 are there to show you how to finish the Canon!!!

[@user-cy1ri4wj4b]

Thank heavens! Now I can write canons over a cantus firmus! William Bathe was not just Irish, but a convert to Catholicism who was ordained as a Jesuit priest. This method strikes me as being quite Jesuitical, in a good way. One notes the non-canonic voices (amusingly often described as “free voices”) in the “Goldberg” Variations canons with a sense of slightly scandalized relief.

[@lordwilksy]

I bet Bathe was really good at Sudoku

[@marie-evebouchard5572]

Another question. It seems with the cantus firmus presented in the examples that the rules from fux are not yet applied. For example the repetition of notes. It means the rules are not the same in r Renaissance counterpoint? Thanks.

[@marie-evebouchard5572]

I have a question. For the seconds, thirds, sixths and seventh, does it work both with major and minor intervals?

[@Kyrelel]

Hmm. How do you know the first note of the follower will be consonant with the cantus firmus if, at no point, is the CF note value considered.

[@PawePoskon]

Composers nerding their way out since 1596 🤓

[@abracadaverous]

Now I find that I am suddenly hungry for vegetables.

[@richsackett3423]

Seems Observations 5&6 are included in the table in the interest of completeness beyond practical considerations.

[@HiroDeBrine]

Byrd's Passamezzo in its imitative sections is very reminiscent to the earlier organ/keyboard piece, "Felix Namque I" by his teacher and early contemporary Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). I find Felix Namque sounds quite interesting and modern at times due to its archaic early Tudor use of part writing. Tallis struggled to let go of the old "Eton Choirbook" native style ((especially when it came to fauxbourdon retained in his Latin polyphonic music: you can hear a bit of it if you listen to the late motets "Te Lucis Ante Terminum" and "Suscipe Quaeso Domine")) in favour of the new Italian styles arriving during the late Tudor era, one of the factors that caused Tallis' final compositions to sell very poorly. Felix Namque is not unique as it was common practice for organists in England, pre-reformation, to improvise or compose imitative counterpoint with repetitive melodic structures for votive Marian chants during Vespers and Compline. There are several examples of the Felix Namque chant being used and by the advent of the English Reformation, often the organ subsituted sung chant entirely. However, Tallis' work uniquely dates to the late Tudor period, unlike the other examples, when the reformation forbade the use of Latin chants and cantus firmus in a religious context, and as Felix Namque was compiled in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (which contains works by keyboard composers active mostly after Tallis' death, such as Sweelinck, Gibbons and Bull) it was likely well-known and used outside of the chant's context. Perhaps Tallis' impression with organ chant composition with multiple short imitations helped inspire his pupil, Byrd, in his contributions to the Virginalist school, including in Pazzamezzo, many years before contact with Bull. Early Music history and theory grows deeper the more you read into it, but its always, always fascinating. Lovely video as usual 👏👏👏

[@brendanward2991]

"An English author ... the Irish Catholic William Bathe" ?

[@user-cy1ri4wj4b]

Presumably implying an author who wrote and published in the English language.

[@bifeldman]

The Krell Mind Expander.

[@declamatory]

"It's not"

[@WilliamFord972]

I’m early this time!

[@MichaelJohnson-composer]

Great video! But HELP! don’t understand why in your explanation at 8:53, you put 1/3/6 below the third note when the CF clearly moves up a second, not a third. Why don’t you write 3/5 below the third note? You also do this in the canon writing examples toward the end of the video. The melody steps up from D to E and you write 1/3/6 as possibilities, as if the CF was moving by a third. Why?

[@NenadStefanovicbach]

Great!! After canons there are fugues!!! Kunst der fugue!!! :)

[@emilianodorantes2434]

Let’s try…

[@billymeyer99]

A real brain twister.

[@emilianodorantes2434]

The poster of the table is a joke? Because I would like to order one of those 😂

[@EarlyMusicSources]

www.teechip.com/bathe

[@gitasong]

You could always just make a Google spreadsheet. 😁

[@CalebePriester]

I don't understand. I must be really dumb. Sad.

[@EarlyMusicSources]

Believe me the problem is not yours - it's a mess

[@randmorf]

Seems like a great application for AI (artificial intelligence).

[@mq172]

Correction: The Magic Table that lets *AI* compose canons over a Cantus Firmus (or, as we called 'em in school: Cantus Erectus)

[@superblondeDotOrg]

Give it to AI to train on = the death of music innovation

[@mer1red]

I don't look at AI as good or bad, black or white. I see an AI tool as an assistant. It is sometimes hard to keep all the rules in mind when I wrote something. If you don't have a teacher who corrects you, AI can help to signal weak spots. But the intuition, inspiration and decision to deviate from what is mathematically correct is where art comes in, and this should remain. No full automation.