Johannes Theile’s “Harmonischer Baum”. An Example of Figurative Canon

Two manuscript copies of the Musikalisches Kunst-Buch of Johann Theile (1691, containing some miscellaneous compositions dating from the last decades of 17th century) present an interesting puzzle canon in figurative form: Der harmonische Baum. The canon is presented in the form of a tree with eight upper branches («Harmonischer Baum in Canone à 10»), four on each side of the trunk. The base of the tree is a bass line in which the last four measures are the retrograde of the first four («Radix»). The Harmonischer Baum is provided with a rhyme, which is written just below the ten-part canon: «Liebet so ihr liebstern Beyde / daß ihr einst mit tausent Freude / Kinder sehet um euch gehen / so Viel Zweig um Baume stehen» (Love you most beloved pair / so that one day with a thousand joys / as many children en-circle you / as there are branches on the tree). The canon could be a commemorative piece (a gift?) for a wedding or it could be related to the alchemy because of its marriage symbology. In this article I will explain the resolution possibilities of the canon and its particular collocation in the figurative canon tradition.