INGERS LOVE CANONS. And this canon by the great Nanino (d. 1607) is a masterpiece. I love how one voice is entirely “boring” notes—all half notes, a lot of stepwise motion, and so forth. But Nanino makes up for that in the other voices, which leap all over the place, use tons of different rhythmic values, and have a “thumpy” or “hammer” sound which contrasts with the top voice. It would seem Nanino was not a priest, but was very likely in minor orders (similar to Abbé Franz Liszt). In 1670, Pope Clement X ordered that all papal singers had to be tonsured within two years of their entrance into the choir or lose their pay.
Please don’t forget to check out the rehearsal videos for each individual voice:
* PDF Download • AGNUS DEI (3 Voices)
—The bottom two voices are a perfect canon!
Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #64932.
Live Recording: On Sunday, we made our first attempt at singing this. I’m sure it will improve each time we sing it, but I’m happy with our first attempt. I tried everything I knew to get the singers to avoid saying “Pay”-ccata for the word Peccata (which is supposed to be “Peh”-ccata) but we’ll keep working on it. We’ve only had a few rehearsals so far, thanks to California’s Covid-19 restrictions:
* Mp3 Download • LIVE RECORDING
—First attempt at singing this “Agnus Dei” recorded on 13 June 2021.
We actually connected it to this Agnus Dei for Two Voices by Father Guerrero, which is in the same “key.” It worked well.
Here’s a Live Recording from 27 June 2021 with the score.
Speaking Of Canons: I suppose everyone has a “pet peeve.” I personally hate when composers pretend something is a canon when it’s not. A perfect canon—a genuine one—is the most difficult thing to compose. When I see composers fibbing about canons, it reminds me of when I was in kindergarten. I would see Olympic skaters on television, and then I’d hop around saying: “Look mom, I’m doing the Olympics, too.” But saying something doesn’t make it so. If I can find the time, I’d like to write an article about people who write fake canons. I have an entire collection of fake canons by GIA Publications, and it’s disgusting. More on that fiasco when I have time…
