'Peeres in Confyt' puzzle canon for SATB choir by Edwards

'Peeres in Confyt' is the third canon of a three-movement work for SATB choir completed in 2007, based on royal English medieval recipes. Each movement is a different puzzle canon: a single melody which becomes a four-voice piece for choir when the instructions are followed.

Beginning with the bass part, each subsequent part begins two beats later and reads a fifth higher, following the same key signature of two sharps.

The piece was premièred by the New York Virtuoso Singers in 2009 in a concert celebrating the winners of their composition contest. The piece won honorable mention.

Puzzle Canon Receipts of the Forme of Cury - ( #formeofcury )
iii. Peeres in Confyt

The three recipes which comprise the texts of these canons are taken from "The Forme of Cury, A Roll of Ancient English Cookery, compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II, presented much later to Queen Elizabeth I by Edward Lord Stafford."

"Forme of Cury was the name given by Samuel Pegge [ca. 1780] to a roll of cookery written by the Master Cooks of King Richard II of England. This name has since come into usage for almost all versions of the original manuscript. It is by far the most well known medieval guide to cooking. .... The roll was written in late Middle English on vellum and details some 205 recipes.

As I listen to the performance I imagine a royal kitchen with large wooden tables and staffed by cooks of various ranks reciting and repeating the directions in polyphony as various medieval ingredients are combined and prepared. The following of the instructions to unlock the puzzle canon go hand in hand with the following of instructions to concoct the dish. —T D Edwards

[dereksheldon]

Well! What a remarkable and entertaining piece of music this is!