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I have always been amazed by the rhythmic devices that took place in the Renaissance. One of them is the canon in prolatio, or prolationum. In this type of canon the voices start at the same time developing the same melody at several duration of the notes. One of the best examples is the Missa prolationum by Johannes Ockeghem. I wanted to take this concept to a more contemporary field. So, in this short piece, the melody starts at 5/4 (piano 1 left hand), at 5/4 half duration of the notes (piano 1 right hand), and the same figures than the original melody but in 7/8 (piano 2 right hand). Later, the left hand of the piano 2 adds drones or profound tones. As you can see, the tempos must be fixed proportionally so that the bars are aligned. I have seen some other pieces with this polyrhythm / polytempo, but 7/8 against 5/4 is my own experiment. Of course, although the piece is tonal, there are some clashes here and there. I love using ancient techniques in my own context. How to write this in the editor is another issue. I have done it in Finale, which I no longer use. This one is done in Dorico.
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This time, I wanted to work with rhythm complexity and the mosaic form. I took a pice I had written for piano solo, which was a canon in prolatio, and I added two more voices to the canon in some partsThe piece is for two violins and piano. There are six different parts: A = 2 measures B = 8 measures C = 3 measures D = 8 measures E = 3 measures F = 4 measures The structures is as follows (written in the score): ABCDAEFCEFABDACEF Don't expect a classic binary, ternary or whatever form. This is a different (contermporary approach) where the parts are short and the mosaic is done combining them in different orders. So, the concept of variation and climax is not the classic one. Parts B and D are the more complex. The four voices (piano two single melodic lines, plus two violins) are in prolatio. The same melody is played at different rates or time signatures. These parts, although are not always consonant, are in tonal "environments": part B in Gmaj, part D in Dmaj. I wanted to focus in the rhythms. The other parts are in contrast. The texture of the piano is chordal, and tonality dissapears. Although the whole piece runs in quarter note = 78, I notated the exact relative timing for the voices in prolation. This was an observation that one of the teachers I had made, in order to make clear to each player the timing. https://soundcloud.com/user-406660501/life-in-a-nutshell LIFE IN A NUTSHELL_LH - SCORE.pdf
