Jonathan Shaw

     Ah – I had forgotten about this one – and a shame, for it isn’t too bad either.

​

     Another piece written whilst I was at college, this one is a rhythmic canon for six wordless voices (I think, intentionally wordless this time!) divided into three sections. I believe it may have been inspired by Stanford’s Beati Quorum Via which we had also recently sung at my local church choir (which similarly was scored for SSATBB). Each of the main sections were also divided into two sections each, as to spice up the canon and start in a different voice.

​

     It is a jolly fun piece with some nice counterpoint due to the employment of a canon which inevitably brings on the counterpoint. I still find some enjoyment in this piece, as I am a sucker for relentless counterpoint (Bach’s Contrapunctus IX is one of my favourites) and this piece was one of my own endeavours into swift counterpoint. As to whether it was successful is up to you to decide, but at least I found some pleasure in this piece, which is something I can rarely say about these earlier pieces.

​

     As you can see from the original score, the title was originally (although still under dispute!) "Untitled Vocal Canon". And, well, it seems I still have yet to find a proper name for this piece beyond a "Vocal Piece".