per recte et retroadj.adv.
/pəː ˈrɛkteɪ ˌɛt ˈrɛtrəʊ/, U.S. /pər ˈrɛkteɪ ˌɛt ˈrɛtroʊ/ Music. Now rare.
A. adj.
Chiefly as a postmodifier. Of a piece of music: containing a theme played both in the original form and in reverse; having the form of a canon cancrizans (see cancrizans adj.); written in this style. Cf. recte and retro adj., rectus et inversus adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > piece of music > type of piece > piece in specific form > [adjective] > canon
canonical1609
recte and retro1631
cancrizans1782
per recte et retro1812
canonic1854
finite1869
infinite1869
rectus et inversus1938
1812 Brit. Rev. & London Crit. Jrnl. 4 327 We really do not see how an inverted answer can be called the same melody as its subject; or how such compositions have a better claim to the rank of canons than those per recte et retro.
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 72/1 The following is a canon cancrizans with a bass part per recte et retro.
1909 R. Dunstan Composer's Handbk. x. 155 A Canon ‘per Recte et Retro’ is one that may be sung forwards and backwards at the same time, producing two parts in one.
1922 R. O. Morris Contrapuntal Technique 50 In each pair of voices the part of the lower is that of the upper begun at the end and sung backwards, i.e. a canon per recte et retro.
1930 Musical Times Aug. 734 Dr. C. H. Kitson recently showed us a Per recte et retro hymn-tune, and another in perpetual canon.
1954 Grove's Dict. Music (ed. 5) V. 79 Stainer wrote a hymn-tune ‘per recte et retro’ in 1898.
B. adv.
Forwards and in reverse. Chiefly with reference to the movement of a canon cancrizans (see cancrizans adj.). Also figurative. Cf. recte and retro adv., rectus et inversus adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > piece of music > type of piece > piece in specific form > [adverb] > canon
recte and retro1631
per recte et retro1812
canonically1875
1812 W. Crotch Elements of Musical Composition vii. 101 The melody in two parts..is to be first performed in the usual manner from left to right, and then from right to left, or per recte et retro.
1908 W. L. Hubbard Musical Dict. 427/2 In old compositions the notes were so arranged on the staff that while one singer was progressing forward from the beginning, another was singing from the end to the beginning, thus executing the work per recte et retro.
1924 Music & Lett. 5 224 He [sc. Cherubini] could confess his sins in canons and inversions..and doubtless he could and did correct his children per recte et retro.
1930 Musical Times Sept. 839/1 A canon eight in four, each pair of parts being at the same time worked per recte et retro.
1954 Musical Times Oct. 548/2 Like canon-writers of old, they work ‘per recte et retro’—looking both forwards to Vaughan Williams and backwards to Palestrina.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.1812