All four voices, split across two pianos and two players. One side starts, the other answers; the sound arrives from both sides, and the little gap left in the middle is easy to hear. 4:01.
One side starts, the other answers, and a gap stays open between
With two instruments the sound arrives from both sides. One begins, the other answers, and the small gap left between them is easy to hear.
It is like talking across an aisle — no hurry to reply, waiting until the other side has finished. All four voices are present, with the second violin dropped an octave, which is why the bass sits wider here than in the other versions.
Other ways to hear it
The same piece exists here in four scorings: solo beginner (with score, playable with two hands), solo advanced (with score, two lines in the right hand), this one (two pianos), and piano four hands (four hands on one instrument, the three lines stacked in one register).
More to leave running: Bach's Prelude in C, Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1.
About this arrangement
Where it comes from
Mutopia Project, "Canon per 3 Violini e Basso" — originally scored for three violins and basso continuo, four voices in all. Engraved by Michael Fischer v. Mollard from the IMSLP edition in LilyPond, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Why it was arranged this way
All four voices are present, split across two pianos: Piano I takes violins one and two (the second dropped an octave so that instrument’s hands stay clear of each other), Piano II takes violin three and the ground bass. With a keyboard each, overlapping registers stop being a constraint — this is the most natural keyboard equivalent of the original’s three same-register lines.
