enigmatic canon
- noun
- Archaic
:
canon enigmático
- The composer wrote an enigmatic canon that required performers to decipher the entry points from cryptic cues.
Examples
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Scholars studied the enigmatic canon to understand the intricate notational puzzles left by 16th-century composers.
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Many Renaissance musicians enjoyed the intellectual challenge of composing an enigmatic canon.
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The enigmatic canon puzzled many musicologists.
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Have you ever heard an enigmatic canon?
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Scholars studied the enigmatic canon to understand the intricate notational puzzles left by 16th-century composers.
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The composer wrote an enigmatic canon that required performers to decipher the entry points from cryptic cues.
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Many Renaissance musicians enjoyed the intellectual challenge of composing an enigmatic canon.
Synonyms
A musical puzzle that uses hidden signs to make the same tune begin again
A musical piece where the voices follow hidden instructions written as riddles
A musical piece where players solve clues to know when to start playing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase denotes a canon (a contrapuntal musical piece) described as enigmatic (difficult to comprehend), so its meaning is directly compositional from the adjective + noun. This modifier–noun pattern follows standard English composition and, assuming the learner knows both constituents, a B1 learner can infer the intended meaning despite the term's specialized musical context.
Etymology
Enigmatic canon comes from a musical trick used long ago: composers wrote a canon and gave it an enigmatic set of marks, a 'puzzle' that hid when each voice should start. So an enigmatic canon is a piece where performers must solve those clues to know when each part enters.
