A Canon Variation
File this under: how-did-I-not-know-this? Of course, the answer comes in the form of another question: how-would-I-have-known?
So Brian Eno did a few variations on The Canon* and they appear on an album called Discreet Music. It’s at least got to be a peculiarity and worth a listen, right? If for no reason other than being so contradistinct. There’s a feeling that one must listen to it at least once because one has to of heard it. Then one files it away and can now claim familiarity. Well, it’s actually enjoyable too, because you can do anything with The Canon and make it work. It’s there to be hacked.
Here’s some non-musical theory by a non-musician on a piece of music. The Canon is like eight ingredients (it’s actually five but three of those ingredients appear in double portions) coming together to make three soups and a loaf of bread. There are so many ways to manipulate those eight ingredients and arrange those soups around the bread. The bread never changes. It’s a fairly simple meal and maybe even a dull one.
Another theory: the Eno versions kind of still fit this model and perhaps that’s why I enjoy listening to them. Over and over again.** Imagine cauldrons of boiling soups. Out of these vague, undulating roils (the undulations seem to have taken over the role of the bread) you can pick out the ingredients if you wish to. Each hit is slightly novel compared to the last or maybe it’s identical. Not so sure. Then it bubbles and changes again. I can listen to this all day. But…
Maybe the inability to appreciate four minutes of more contemporary sounds with a human voice singing in English is one of the signs of cultural ageing. The chasm widens and deepens.
*Needless to say which The Canon since there is only one The Canon.**I’m sure you can picture and find amusement in an image of obsessive repetition.
Jae-Ho
Brian Eno, Canon in D Major, sounds like Sigur Ros, which itself sounds like the way you might describe Sigur Ros to someone who had never heard them. I can’t think of another example of a combination like that (“X is like Y done by Z”) that then actually exists, or at least not without purposefully trying to do it in reverse.
So why all the love for Canon in D, but not Vivaldi’s Four Seasons…which in my mind are the same song. I almost mean that literally. They don’t sound at all alike, but if you go into a garden store or gift shop, and there’s one of those CD sampler things, you’ll have Canon in D for the Mindful Soul, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – Lovers’ Edition.
Here is Summer done by metal guitarists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5jZ4fZTwGI
Of course, the greatest version still features John Popper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdz5kCaCRFM&feature=kp
The Hook. Nice. I’ve never realized the The Canon connection. I bought “Four” on cassette on the strength of the one song. Run-Around did nothing for me. It was all about Hook. Once again, The Canon. Although the song might be more of an indictment of hooks, and therefore The Canon, rather than a celebration.
I had started on a reply, but it got away from me. So it will be a full post instead. Coming up shortly.
The reply is here: Why The Canon