FIVE CONTRAPUNCTI FOR WOODWIND TRIO

Leroy W. Southers, Jr.

Our musical forefathers, especially those of the 15th through the 18th Centuries, often couched their musical thoughts in complex contrapuntal terms. From their procedural forms I have selected five that seemed apt to my own expressive ideas.

I. Mirror Canon with Palindrome

The clarinet replies to the flute by playing the same music upside down. The oboe part sounds the same played forward or backward.

II. Imitative Canon at the Upper and Lower Fifth with Coda

The oboe is the leader, chased by the clarinet playing the same music a Perfect
5th lower. The flute immediately responds a Perfect 5th above the oboe. The
Coda breaks the Canon to afford a spiffy ending.

III. Cancrizans with Palindrome

This Tin Pan Alley inspired piece finds the clarinet playing the oboe part backward. The flute part reads the same in either direction.

IV. Prolation Canons and Cadenzas

The same music is played in all parts but at different rhythmic rates and in different registers. Three times the canons are interrupted to allow each instrument a brief fantasy.

V. Triple Fugue

Each of the three musical ideas, called subjects, is given its own Exposition and set of Developments. Finally all three subjects are heard simultaneously in various combinations as a summation.

These descriptions will give the listener an idea of the mechanics underlying the music. But of course such music must also have personality and character, like any other music. This composer hopes that he has given the listener, and the performers, an entertaining musical experience, and has touched the emotional sensibilities as well as the head.