The Fredösphere

This may not be the first time I've linked to the four singing horses (hat tip to A Cappella News) but it's a classic, so why not.  Also, I just noticed something:  when you turn on each horse's voice, it doesn't begin singing in the middle of its loop, as I expected.  This would be necessary if the four voices were kept in strict temporal relationships with each other.  No, when you turn on a voice, you're deciding exactly when it starts its part.  You become a composer, creating one of an infinite set of contrapuntal possibilities.

Okay, so I admit the description makes it seem more profound than it feels once you go there and try it.  Still, the concept startled me, and got me thinking.  This flexibility explains why the voice parts are so crabbed; five-part fully invertible counterpoint is child's play compared to writing four parts that must work at least kinda okay together with any possible temporal relationship. 

Here are more thoughts ... Could an example of standard-practice counterpoint exist within this framework?  Surely no, not a non-degenerate case.  Do examples of this approach exist in the wild?  Very likely, but the examples I know of that give this kind of freedom to the performer allow for freedom of tempo; they even tend to assume rubato.  Finally -- and be honest -- is the title of this post the most mind-bendingly brilliant pun you've read all day, or what?  Yes.

Labels: Counterpoint, vocal