The Canons Database

Abstract

This research tool was developed by Dr Denis Collins, University of Queensland, and Dr Jason Stoessel, University of New England, as part of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP150102135) “Canonic techniques and musical change, c.1330–c.1530" from 2015 to 2018. Our goal has been to collect and classify every canon that survived in musical sources as late as 1530. Canon is defined here in the broadest sense as a polyphonic structure that results from one or more voices or parts being combined using strict repetition or systematic transformation. We hope that this website will provide musicians and musicologists with insights into the vibrant and creative processes that informed the composition of canons in early European music.