Sacred and Secular Musical Canons (Rounds)
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    I am completing a hymnal/songbook for my school and am adding a last section of canons. If you have good suggestions, and even links to files, I would like to see all options. They can be in English or Latin, (I really need more sacred music canons.) I teach grades Pre-K through 8, so all levels of difficulty are invited. Thanks in advance.
  • Do you have "Great Tom is cast"?
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Great Tom Is Cast
    greattom.gif
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Here is one I composed back in my teens.
    asYourWordUnfolds.pdf
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  • Yes, that's the one. Do you know the reference?

    [I'll assume the answer is yes, but for the benefit of others, this is a round about ringing chimes in a bell tower. Great Tom is the biggest bell in the tower. I seem to remember that it was the biggest bell in a specific tower, but I can't place it in my Swiss-cheese-like memory just now.

    Tom?
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  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 162
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  • Non nobis, Domine

    My dame hath a lame tame crane

    I wrote one for my boys some time ago, but I don't know if I still have it in a dusty file somewhere.

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  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 162
    There are a few rounds in A New Book of Old Hymns - I haven't indexed them separately, but I should make a section on the webpage for the rounds.

    This page has Non nobis and Laudate Nomen Domini.

    This has a cute simple Ave Maria round

    Jubilate Deo has its own page there's a link to the pdf at the top of the page.

    Da pacem has its own page too - this one is very similar to Non Nobis.

    I think that's all the rounds in the book. I like rounds :)
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  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,092
    Masters in this hall
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,064
    Presumably in Tom Tower at Christ Church College Oxford (the tower of Christ Church Cathedral has a peal of 12 bells):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tower

    Said bell in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhW5nOxXGoY
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Thank you CGZ and veromary... it will hard to choose the best 10-20!
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  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    William Tortolano (quondam and perhaps current member of the CMAA) published "59 Liturgical Rounds" - G3389 of GIA Publications, Inc. I presume it is still available. It was copyright 1990 and replaced an earlier less extensive version.

    It includes an enjoyable collectiion of rounds in Latin-English-and even some Hebrew (Zum Gali Gali)! Much of it is traditional although with a bit of text editing by WT himself.

    For many years, this was the basic source of rounds sung by my friends and me at our annual Epiphany Party.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    WGS

    can you post a pic of the TOC? It doesn’t seem to be available on the web.
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    See the attached.
    Does that work?
    Rounds Tortolano-3.pdf
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    Rounds Tortolano-4.pdf
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Thank you WGS... looks like I should track down a copy of this pub.
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    I see that it's available from Amazon and also SheetMusicPlus (which I have not dealt with).
  • Bri
    Posts: 116
    Here is a book we used in one of my music education courses. Most are secular rounds, but there are some religious ones too.

    If you don't want to buy one, maybe you can find one to borrow through inter-library loan.

    https://www.amazon.com/Rounds-Singing-Teaching-Kodaly-English/dp/1458411427
  • There is a group of six canons and rounds starting at no. 710 near the back of The Hymnal 1982
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  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    Do you know this one? Not nearly as respectable as those suggested above:

    Black socks- they never get dirty,
    The longer you wear them the stronger they get!
    Sometimes I think I should wash them
    But something inside me keeps saying "Not yet, not yet, not yet."

    I used to use this as a warm up when I was doing the school play and the intermediate grades really enjoyed it. This was in a school that wasn't used to singing in harmony so rounds were a great introduction to singing in some kind of parts.

    If your answer is no, and you would like to learn it, I will ask my sweet husband to write it up for me.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Hi Carol... is this it? I don't think this is a round, just a song... did you sing another version in round?
    blackSocks.png
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  • sdtalley3sdtalley3
    Posts: 263
    There’s a round I know in Latin called “Noster gallus est mortuus.” It’s also on YouTube in German, “Der Hahn ist tot”, but it doesn’t have the same “ring” as the Latin equivalent.
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  • cesarfranck
    Posts: 158
    Michael Burkhardt through Morningstar Publications published a set of six sacred canons about thirty years ago. I have used a couple with adult and childrens choirs. Also, Saint James Music Press published "Canons and Crotchets" as well as several other canons or rounds in anthem format. I have used several of them a capella by dropping full measure rests. Donald Busarow published through Augsburg a collection of numerous hymn tune based canons.
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  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,046
    Here are some rounds with sacred words taken from the book Christian Life in Song by Paul R. Ladd, published by McLaughlin & Reilly in 1963. Those with texts or translations by Ladd are still under copyright (all the melodies are in the public domain).

    Some were were republished by GIA in a series of choral collections edited by Ladd (A Choir Book for (Advent / Christmas / Lent / Easter)).

    From these I'd recommend in particular:
    Advent and Christmas
    Drop Down Dew (Mozart)
    O Come O Come Emmanuel (Mozart)
    Lo How a Rose (Vulpius)
    Lent and Easter
    When Jesus Wept (Billings)
    Christ is Now Risen (Gulpeltzhaimer)

    And don't forget these favorites -
    Alleluia (Mozart)
    By the Waters of Babylon (Hayes)
    Like as a Father (Cherubini)
    Advent and Christmas Blessing and Rounds - from CLIS.pdf
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    Rounds for Lent and Easter from Christian Life in Song.pdf
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    Epiphany, Pentecost, Marian and General rounds - from CLIS.pdf
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  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,046
    As for secular canons, many of the classics can be found here. Of these I've found that the following work especially well:

    Ah, poor bird
    As I mee walked
    Christmas is coming
    Come follow
    Donkeys and carrots
    Have you seen the ghost of Tom (John)
    Hey ho nobody home
    My dame hath a lame tame crane
    Oh How Lovely is the Evening
    Old Abram Brown
    Rose, Rose (variation of Hey ho nobody home)
    Sumer is i-cumen in
    White coral bells
    Why shouldn't my goose

    For maximum fun (and confusion) some of these can also be sung simultaneously as "partner songs" - e.g. "Ah, poor bird" and "Hey ho, nobody home"; "My dame hath a lame tame crane," "Why shouldn't my goose," and "Donkeys and carrots."
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  • The Lutherans are quite bold in singing in canon hymn tunes which most of us would think would be unfit canonic material.
    Experiment and be surprised.
    They also face epistle side against gospel side, women against men, choir against congregation, adults against children...
    Also, they think nothing of singing hymns in alternation with the organ.
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  • GerardH
    Posts: 448
    There is this collection on CPDL, which includes this Sanctus by Clemens non Papa, beautifully rendered in this recording.
  • Jackson,

    While I don't want to detract from your valid comment, the Lutherans also brought us Consubstantiation, so the good which Lutherans do is not limitless.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,178
    Tallis Canon - to any of several texts:

    All praise to Thee, my God, this night, For all the blessings of the light! Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, Beneath Thine own almighty wings

    Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

    Be present at our table, Lord, Be here and ev'ry where adored, These mercies bless, and grant that we May feast in Paradise with Thee.

    Thanked by 2francis LauraKaz
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Unfortunately the history of the Tom Bell is not a theology (Christ-Church) I would like to promote or with which to educate young Catholic minds... My approach to sacred music is connected to the spiritual patrimony of the OHCAAF, and this would confuse children, because they will surely ask questions, if I explained "from where the music arises." ...musical themes, not so much.

    I may compose different words as the melody is sound.
  • Francis,

    Lincoln Cathedral (England, not Nebraska) isn't evil because it's now occupied by Protestants heretics our separated brethren. What history or theology do you think encumbers Tom?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    the words "Christ-Church bells ring"... (my bells don't ring at a Christ-Church)
    I in good conscience cannot go along with the idea that 'well, we are just one big happy family'!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Cathedral,_Oxford
  • Francis,

    It's possible to see problems where none exist. I think you might be seeing one or two here.

    "Christchurch" is, for example, the name of a city in New Zealand (if I recall). The fact that it's called that provides a historically interesting fact, but one would not necessarily presume from it that the people there are somehow more pious. The same could be said of St. Matthew, Kentucky, near Louisville, or nearly any Spanish-named place on the west coast.

    So, Christ Church bells, could simply name the bells of that tower in that Cathedral which, based on the link you provided, dates from before King Henry VIII.

    I won't go along with the "one big happy family" syrup either. Westminster Abbey is a beautiful building which we'd like back at some point.

  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    ah... I thought it was a double name for the episcopal church. mea culpa. my mistake.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    so today i have set 12 rounds so far... there are such a great many good ones, will be hard to limit the book with ten to twenty. I also found my book of rounds, "Rounds and Rounds", Hargail Music Press, 1959
  • Francis, I've got one called "Infans Iratus Est"---"The Baby is Angry." Text and music mine.

    1. Infans iratus est, infans iratus est, O hora dolorosa, O passio!

    2. Pax parentibus, pax parentibus.

    3. Nostrum auxilium a Domino, qui fecit caelum et terram.

    I'll post sheet music later when I get a minute.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,064
    Tom Tower is not the cathedral tower, but that of Christ Church College, Oxford, as I had linked earlier.
  • Here's my "Infans Iratus Est."
    InfansIratusEst.mp3
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    InfansIratusEst.pdf
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    A Brief History
    Christ Church was founded nearly five hundred years ago, part of Renaissance movement to improve education and train young men for an active life in the church or the state. The first steps were taken in 1524 by Cardinal Wolsey, then Henry VIII’s chief advisor; he planned to build a new, Cardinal’s College ‘for the increase of good letters and vertue’. The money for it was to come from closing some monasteries, including the St Frideswide priory in Oxford, whose site was to provide the nucleus for the new college.

    St Frideswide’s was an ideal starting point for Wolsey; it was on the edge of what was already a university town, with its own a substantial priory church and buildings, but in 1520 there were only nine men living there. Wolsey hoped that by closing the monastery and turning it into a college he could prove his own credentials as a humanist intellectual, putting the wealth of the church to more practical use. The foundation stones were quickly laid and work began on the hall, but in 1529 Wolsey fell from power and his grand plans had to be revised. The college was taken over by Henry VIII and re-founded in 1546 as Aedes Christi, the House (or Church) of Christ. Henry had even more ambitious plans for the foundation – it was to be the cathedral church of a new diocese as well as a place of scholarship.

    Henry’s involvement with Christ Church ensured a strong connection between the college and the royal family. Nearly a hundred years later, Charles I stayed in Christ Church for almost four years. Charles had not intended this, for he had been forced to leave London by his Parliamentarian opponents during the English Civil War. But he found Christ Church welcoming, its Great Hall an ideal venue for his Parliament, and he attended services in the cathedral regularly. When his son, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660, Christ Church was jubilant, and it was in these years that Tom Quad was finally finished – including the magnificent Tom Tower, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Tom Quad remains one of Oxford’s most famous places, a magnificent quadrangle surrounded by the hall, cathedral and canonries.

    From the sixteenth century onwards, Christ Church has had many influential members from across the political and religious spectrum. Thirteen prime ministers have been educated here (more than any other college), including the great Victorian Liberal William Gladstone. John Locke, philosopher and campaigner for religious toleration, taught here, and Lewis Carroll wrote about Alice in Wonderland while Mathematical Lecturer here.

    Today Christ Church is one of the larger colleges,with about 450 undergraduates and 150 graduates drawn from all places and backgrounds. Together they ensure it remains a lively academic community. The cathedral ministers to the whole diocese, but it is also a college chapel, with regular services open to all.


    Tom Quad

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Quad

    Funded by closing monasteries? Lol... Maybe it is Hells bells after all.
    Wolsey hoped that by closing the monastery and turning it into a college he could prove his own credentials as a humanist intellectual, putting the wealth of the church to more practical use.
    Replacing prayer with education is never a good idea. (Engel v. Vitale) We have far too much education and far too little prayer.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Anna

    What is english translation of your canon?
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,064
    "Funded by closing monasteries? Lol... Maybe it is Hells bells after all."

    Hell could be Catholic even then, too. Catholic prelates and princes also closed monasteries and the like before the Reformation, as they also funded them. Foundations prospered, and withered. Some became targets. Their endowed lands were sources of revenues that could be redirected if they were closed. Cardinal Wolsey was Archbishop of York, but had to wait in his greediness for Richard Foxe to die in 1528 to get appointed the the richest see in the British Isles, Winchester*, only to lose it and eventually be succeeded by Bishop Gardiner.

    * The annual income of York in 1535 was only 56% of that of Winchester, which was nearly 2900 pounds (equivalent to the annual wages of over 2200 ordinary laborers, with an estimated equivalent modern value of nearly 20 million pounds based on average earnings or over 45 million pounds based on comparative per capita GDP).
  • "The baby is angry, the baby is angry; O sad hour, O suffering! Peace to the parents, peace to the parents. Our help is in the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."
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  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,092
    what a long list you are developing!
    I like this Brahms Benedictus
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKK2IZEOzBo
  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Yes Liam... hell has broken out inside the church... that is why the world is in such turmoil now. Therefore, we must promote a return to the OHCaAF... that is my only goal and main purpose.
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    Anna:

    The baby Jesus?
  • No no no! Oh my goodness. I was thinking more of a fun piece for parents, to help maintain their sanity.
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  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    Anna, I agree as one who has struggled to maintain my sanity on too little sleep. I like the idea that you can sing your frustrations out, but the baby won't even know because (for me) I would be singing in a foreign language.

    Francis, it is close and mine is obviously based on it. I can see the tune was adapted to allow it to be sung as a round, but I am not that proficient at music as to be able to tell you immediately what is different. I will get back to you after I consult with the real musician in the house.
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  • Francis,

    I'm late to the party, with this suggestion, but since I located the recording while finding resources for my Music Appreciation course..

    Sumer is icomen in:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxx7ZIfJqr4
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,775
    my new arrangement of Tallis.
    praiseGod02-1.png
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  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,178
    How about this 3-voice canon "O taste and see" (Communion Antiphon O.T.14) - also available in Latin as "Gustate et videte" (8th Sunday after Pentecost).

    Note: This is not a unison canon. The first and third entries are unison, but the second entry is a fourth above.
    Giffen-O_taste_and_see_SMzA-rev.pdf
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    Giffen-O_taste_and_see_SMzA-rev.mp3
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  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,178
    Or this 2-voice "Ave Maria" - unison canon until the triple meter, where it becomes a canon at a fourth down, then back to a unison canon when the common meter returns.
    Giffen-Ave Maria a 2-SS-x.pdf
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    Giffen-Ave Maria a 2-SS-x.mp3
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