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So this canon is what ends the Presto section of my Springtime Springs piece. As it is now, I only get 2 parallel fifths and no parallel octaves in the entire canon, which I am fine with, since I am not going strictly baroque. However, I tried shifting things so that the canon would be more harmonically cohesive, because, as it is now, it is very incohesive. But, when I shifted it half a measure forward, I found it to be more obviously dissonant and when I shifted it a whole measure forward, I had a spot in my canon with 10 octaves in a row, which I just was not okay with. So now I'm kind of stuck. If I don't need to, I would rather not change the melody or its rhythm.

Here is the canon:

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And here it is in a harmonic view:

enter image description here

Green represents Tonic, Red represents Dominant, and Blue represents Subdominant. As you can see here, there are quite a few moments of function overlap. It even gets to the maximum in the fourth bar and again in the eighth bar where there are tonic, subdominant, and dominant on the same beat. And these moments of harmonic function overlap only resolve on the eighth note or in the case of the fourth bar, on the third beat. This is a problem because this canon is supposed to represent sunny weather. But when the resolution on the eighth note leads to another moment of function overlap, you can hardly say that it is representing sunny weather because of the tension that never stops occuring.

So is there a way that I can both fix this harmonic cohesion issue and minimize parallels without having to change the melody or its rhythm? Once I have fixed this harmonic cohesion issue of the canon, I will go ahead and add free counterpoint to the 2 upper voices to make it end with a cadence in D major, which will then lead into a modulation back to A minor to start the A' section.

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  • If the melody cannot be changed, the only parameter to change is the starting times? Can you try shifting the time offset by a single quarter note? Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 8:51
  • But, that is going to make the canon sound syncopated, isn't it? I'll try it. Maybe the syncopated version will be both more harmonically cohesive and not have too many parallels
    – Caters
    Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 19:54
  • Well, if you say that nothing can be changed, then it doesn't leave you with any options, does it? You have to change something. :) Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 20:43

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