Debussy’s two piano arrangement of Schumann’s original version for pedal piano. The pedal piano was an instrument used by organists as a practice instrument. A quite vivid movement although one isn’t sure what Schumann’s original intention is endeavouring to describe although from the music view a march pattern is suggested both by the time signature and the musical ideas. The two piano version has a playback tempo of 104 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute. The tempo direction in the score is to play the movement “Not too fast.” A canon arises in the description of a musical piece simply because musical ideas are imitated by another voice or instrument. It doesn’t necessarily describe the overall form or structure of a piece. The Study in Canon No.5 is in three sections ABA’ with Section B beginning at bar 37 and the varied repeat of A at bar 83. Understand that the canonic element in Schumann’s time references all the musical elements and not just pitch: dynamics, articulation, ornamentation are all part of the canonic process. The crushed notes or acciaccaturas are a prominent musical feature. This is essentially a study in the articulation of short notes and occasional longer notes. Compositional process is evident from bar 49 where the canonic element involves inversion. This is a challenging music setting to engrave and prepare for print mainly because the score has so much detail which is not easy to represent with clarity on the sheet music page. Accompaniments are available featuring the Piano 1 sounding on one side of the stereo channel and Piano 2 on the other. They play at 92, 96, 100 and 104 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute enabling the pianists to incorporate ensemble practice as part of their routine.
