Anton Webern’s Fünf Canons nach lateinischen Texten, op. 16, occupies the unique position of being the composer’s last work written in a ‘freely atonal’ style before permanently adopting the dodecaphonic method. The decision to set sacred Latin texts in the form of canons also carries with it a tempting, and to-date uninvestigated, link to Webern’s academic studies. Despite the critical location of this cycle in Webern’s œuvre, coupled with the fact that these songs were his only compositional output in over two years, there have been few attempts at an in-depth analysis. This paper aims to call attention to this severely overlooked work by investigating the possible influence of traditional polyphonic practices, particularly as they occur in relevant settings by Heinrich Isaac and Ludwig Senfl. In addition to observing these probable connections to Webern’s past, the collection will be examined on its own merit to demonstrate its role not as a mere transitional work, but as a substantial musical achievement that would unknowingly serve as a technical reservoir for his mature twelve-tone compositions. Finally, several of the topics examined in this analysis—including symmetry, compressed form, types of canonic imitation, and layered meaning—will also be explored in my dissertation piece, Miniatures/Glimpses, for string quartet.

Bryce Cannell is a PhD candidate in music composition and theory at the University of California, Davis. A native of Central California, Cannell received his Master and Bachelor of Arts degrees in music composition from California State University, Fresno. In 2015, Cannell was awarded a Margrit Mondavi Fellowship to travel to the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, to examine the surviving sketches of this work. As a composer, Cannell has been commissioned by the Impetus Percussion Quartet, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and Oakland-based pianist Anne Rainwater. His music has been acknowledged with awards from the Society of Composers Inc., the National Association of Composers/USA, and the Institut für Musik der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.