Almost a Canon
Johann Joseph Fux (arranged by Haas)
Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741)
Fux was a composer from the BAROQUE AGE. In his prestigious court positions he composed and directed many operas and oratorios, as well as dozens of smaller pieces. His most famous stage work was the festival opera Costanza e Fortezza, performed in the most sumptuous and spectacular manner in Prague Castle in 1723 when the Emperor Charles VI was crowned King of Bohemia:
In 1725 Fux published his famous Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Mount Parnassus), the most celebrated textbook on counterpoint based on his musical studies from the RENAISSANCE AGE. Generations of composers learnt their skill from this book including Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
With a canon, an initial melody is copied or imitated a little later at a different pitch. In Almost a Canon the right hand is copied two beats later in the left hand. In the second line the left hand copies the right hand a bar later. But from bar 10 it is not really a canon and is more like a melody with accompaniment – although there is another short canonic phrase in bars 15-17.
This was originally written for the Harpsichord. Click PLAY to hear what it may have sounded like: