prolation canon

A specific type of tempo canon in which all voices use the same melody, but each moves at a different rate — slower voices taking proportionally longer to traverse the material than faster voices. Derived from the medieval concept of mensural prolation, in which a single notated melody could be 'read' at different proportional speeds.

Nancarrow revived the 14th-century prolation technique but extended it beyond any historical precedent, using irrational ratios (√2, e/π) that could not be notated conventionally and could only be realised mechanically. When listening, pick the slowest voice as your anchor and observe how faster voices pull ahead.