The Crab Canon as a Möbius Strip – A 30-Note Music Box Experiment

The Crab Canon as a Möbius Strip – A 30-Note Music Box Experiment

A few years ago, I created paper tape music for my 15-note music box and shared those projects here:

•  30 Songs for 15-Note Music Box

•  25 Songs for Christmas: A Unique Advent Calendar

During that time, I also purchased a 30-note music box, but I never got around to making any music for it, until now. 

Recently, a video of J.S. Bach’s Crab Canon appeared in my YouTube feed, and it immediately caught my attention, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHQ2ybTejU In this piece, one voice plays the melody from beginning to end, while a second voice plays the same melody in reverse, starting at the end and working backwards
. The two lines meet in the middle and continue on their respective paths, creating a beautifully symmetrical and harmonious effect.

This reminded me of a project that I did a while ago where I created a Möbius strip out of Mozart Sonata No. 16 in C, Making a Möbius Strip.  I thought, why not do the same with Bach's Crab Canon.  It would be interesting to recreate the Crab Canon on the 30 note music box as a Möbius strip. 

A Möbius strip is a shape made by twisting a strip of paper once and taping the ends together. It looks simple, but it only has one side and one edge. If you draw a line along the surface, you’ll come back to where you started but on the “other side” without flipping over. It’s a loop with a twist. On a Möbius strip, walking forward eventually becomes going in reverse, without ever crossing an edge.

The Crab Canon is like a musical Möbius strip. It is a melody that turns back on itself, played forward by one voice and backward by another at the same time. Though it is carefully composed rather than improvised, it shows how music can maintain harmony and coherence even when reversed. This works because the notes remain within the same musical key, preserving many of the relationships between tension and release.

While I can’t recreate the full listening experience of both voices playing at once since I only have one 30-note music box. I can produce the Crab Canon as a Möbius strip. This format captures the essence of the piece in a physical, visual way.

The Crab Canon paper tape will be included in the next blog posting with other 30-note songs.