Canon a 2 tempi

[UPDATE: Newer, more precisely scrolling version available here.]

Matthew Guerrieri posted a clever little poem today, inspired by the rather different rates at which Maria Callas and Renée Fleming sing "O mio babbino caro." You can follow that link to see each of the divergent divas in action, but it occurred to me that it would also be fun to hear them sing in duet. So, because I'm clearly desperately in need of the upcoming Spring Break and may actually have lost my mind, I decided to make a little video that also lets you see the notes going by. In my mind, this was a task that would take about 30-45 minutes*. Let's just pretend I did this only in my mind:




It's fun to watch Renée falling further and further behind, but it sounds pretty cool as well, what with all those A-flats floating back and forth. It's also satisfying how the final shimmering chord in the Callas version complements Fleming's next to last cadence.

See also: Mondnachts

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* Actually, I did do most of what you see in about 45 minutes, but then spent an unspecified extra bit of time trying to make the notes come out more clearly. Big mistake. I've had better luck with score visualizations here, but generally speaking, my videoediting software doesn't like all those little parallel staff lines.