List of Works || CanOn Stride

CanOn Stride (1986)

Solo Piano

Duration: 3 minutes

First Performance: 6 November 1987, Toronto; Elaine Keillor

Weinzweig’s significant role in Canada’s cultural history is evidenced in his work for the CBC and National Film Board in the 1940s and 50s, his role in forming the Canadian Music Centre and the Canadian League of Composers, and his use of Canadian folk music, among others. “CanOn” in the title refers to the National Library of Canada where Helmut Kallmann, the dedicatee of this work, was the founding chief of the National Library’s Music Division; Kallmann was also honorary historian of the Canadian League of Composers.

CanOn Stride is built on contrast, from changing metres, sudden dynamic changes, large leaps, and registral shifts. The right and left hands frequently alternate in a call-and-answer pattern; this texture is contrasted with only a few brief passages of homorhythm. Weinzweig opens with a rhythmic motive (four sixteenth notes, eighth note) that emerges at key points throughout the work, as well as at the end. At 132 beats per minute, CanOn Stride is a brief, but exciting musical work.

Written by Alexa Woloshyn