Talk:Crab canon

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Music theory

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Alternate Definition[edit]

The definition I had heard from my music teacher is one that she had to compose during college. By her idea, she had to compose piano sheet music, with the treble and bass clefs, that, if turned upside down, could be played exactly the same, substituting the bass for the treble and vice versa. Obviously, this was a hard piece to compose, but that's about all I can remember. Has anyone else heard this definition? MToolen 19:33, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

This would be a canon in retrograde inversion (Counterpoint#Contrapuntal derivations), whereas a typical crab canon is in retrograde. I don't recall ever seeing something like that, though. Among Bach's canons (see [1] for excellent descriptions of all of them) inversion (ascending motion in the leader becomes descending in the follower) is common, and there's at least one crab canon (in the Musical Offering), but the two are never, as far as I know, combined. Anyway, I don't think the term "crab canon" is commonly used to describe this. EldKatt (Talk) 21:01, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Naming[edit]

Does anyone have the foggiest idea why this is called a crab canon? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sockatume (talk • contribs) 22:45, 20 March 2007.

Because of the movement of Crabs of course, which walk backwards and sideways rather than straight forward. [2] --FordPrefect42 00:10, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This would be worth putting somewhere in the article. dr-t 02:51, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

link to moebius strip film[edit]

This is a bit trivial but why does the film linked below put the crab cannon on a moebius strip? Doesn't that imply an inversion that doesn't actually happen in that piece? I find it a bit confusing, not to mention ridiculous, if I'm right that no inversion occurs. 24.238.113.229 (talk) 20:33, 15 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, this is belated, but you're correct. It's a huge hoax. It's such a successful hoax that it comes up for every Google search even remotely related to "crab canon". Wikipedia should do its part to prevent it from spreading. I've just removed the link. rspεεr (talk) 18:40, 20 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dr Frankinstein zappata[edit]

Didn't Frank Zappa use the crab cannon technique a few times. I know he used a crab cannon in a sheet music dongle he used as part of an article in some guitar mag, but apparently he did a few of these hairy freeks. 121.44.226.137 (talk) 15:42, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image Error[edit]

In the accompanying image of the article, in the fifth bar, top part, beat 2, which is currently a half-note G, should be a half-note A. Otherwise this piece is not a crab-canon. Alternately, in the fourth bar, bottom part, beat 2, which is currently a half-note A-flat can be changed to a half-note G. The former correction is preferred by the rules of counterpoint since the latter would create the dissonant interval of a major second. Thegod2121 (talk) 03:29, 5 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well-spotted! (This was a test, of course.) Now, either someone needs to write a letter to the author of the example, Herr Riemann (who is, unfortunately, deceased), or we need to find out who was the klutz who made the copying error when preparing this image.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 03:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Corrected. Hyacinth (talk) 02:46, 6 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Escher's Crab Canon[edit]

This article should mention Escher's print named "Crab Canon" as well, and the fact that this connection between Escher and Bach was used as the inspiration for a dialogue in Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach.

However, I can't find a good source about the Escher print besides GEB. In fact, when I try to Google it, I get endless results about that terrible Mobius strip hoax. Does anyone know where to look to get an actual scholarly description of an Escher print? rspεεr (talk) 19:05, 20 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]