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In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g. quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody is called the follower which is played in a different voice. The follower must be created from the leader by being either an exact replication of the rhythms and intervals of the leader, or a transformation such as those listed in “Types of canon” (below). Canons where all parts sing identical music and which repeat are called rounds, such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Frère Jacques”.

Accompanied canon is a canon accompanied by one or more additional independent parts which do not take part in imitating the melody.

Contents
1 History
2 Types of canon
3 How voices in a canon are named
    3.1 Number of voices
    3.2 Simple
    3.3 Interval
    3.4 Contrapuntal derivations
    3.4.1 Inverse
    3.4.2 Retrograde
    3.5 Mensuration and tempo canons
4 Other types of canon
    4.1 Puzzle canon
    4.2 Mirror canon
    4.3 Table Canon
5 Elaborate use of canon technique
6 Contemporary canons

History
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The Old French canon, which meant ‘learned’, was taken from the Greek kanon for a rule or law, which eventually came to mean ‘an accepted rule’ in English, and the term was first used for the rule that describes how the voices relate to each other. Not until the sixteenth century was canon used to describe the musical form. The earliest known canons are the rounds (or rondellus) in England from the thirteenth century; the best known is Sumer Is Icumen In. In the fourteenth century many canons were written in Italy under the name caccia, and occasionally French chansons of that period used canon technique. During the period of the Franco-Flemish School (1430-1550), canon as a contrapuntal art form received its greatest development, while the Roman School gave it its most complete application. In the later periods the canon played a less important role (as entertainment), with a few notable exceptions like Bach’s The Musical Offering. Arnold Schoenberg revived the interest in canon with his twelve-tone technique.
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