Showing results for crab canon. Search instead for rabicano.

crab canon

American

noun

Music.

a canon in which the imitating voice is the theme in retrograde motion.

crab canon British

noun

Also called: retrograde canon, canon cancrizans. music a canon in which the imitating voice repeats the notes of the theme in reverse order

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of crab canon

from the mistaken medieval notion that crabs move backwards

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023