A Vuza canon is a rhythmic canon that has the following properties: each unit of time is occupied by a single voice; once all the voices are entered, all units are occupied. Mathematician Dan Tudor Vuza was the first to find a mathematical solution to this specific kind of canon.
Once every voice is entered, the perception of the music becomes ambiguous. “a listener focusing on polyphony would rather listen to the entry and the character of each voice, while another listener focusing on the global perception would rather hear a continuous monody.” (Fabien Levy)
These 10 canons present this paradox in various aspects. The speed of execution, the number of voices and the type of sounds differ between the different canons. They share the same duration (two minutes), the same principle of spatialization (a speaker corresponds to one voice) and the same structure: the voices are introduced successively until every units of time is occupied, which leads to the conclusion of the canon.
Complexity grows with the tempo. In the fastest canons, the unit of time is 20ms. This duration is near the threshold of perception of discontinuity between two sounds. One no longer hears a succession of discrete units, but a continuous flow. The monody becomes sound texture.
The canons were calculated thanks to an Open Music patch written by Moreno Andreatta. Synthesis was done with Max/Msp.
This piece was commissionned by GRM. It premiered in Paris on June 2nd of 2018.
