N. Plotnikova. "On the technique of canon in Vassily Titov’s oeuvre"

Assc. Prof. Natalya Plotnikova, D.A.
Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, Department of Music History and Theory, Music Theory Division; Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the State Institute for Art Studies, Leading Research Fellow

On the technique of canon in Vassily Titov’s oeuvre

Abstract:
The article presents various aspects of canonic technique in the works by Vassily Titov (?1650–?1715), such as their thematic content, an importance of counterpoint whose derivatives are doubled with imperfect consonances, their role in the making of a unity of the cycles, and others. Canonic forms underlie antiphonal episodes in compositions with a simultaneous use of several choirs, which are rooted in the Renaissance music, especially in pieces by the composers of the Venetian school. The principle of an antiphonal correspondence of the choirs (‘khoralnoe pravilo’), which was considered by Nikolay Diletsky in his treatise The Grammar of Music (1677) and often used by Vassily Titov, is interpreted by the author as a musical form based on a canon in the bass parts.

Keywords:
Vassily Titov, Nikolay Diletsky, part singing, counterpoint, canonic technique, polyphonic variations, Russian polyphonic music of the baroque time