Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one of the most famous pieces of classical music of all time. It’s as simple as three violins, one cello, and eight bars of music repeated 28 times. It has risen in popularity to become one of the best-known pieces of classical music ever written.
It’s hard
to imagine a time when this piece wasn’t a firm favourite at weddings, but in
reality, not very much is known about Pachelbel’s most famous piece. We don’t
even know exactly when it was composed, although it’s thought it was around
1680. There are a few unsubstantiated claims that the music was written
for the wedding of Bach’s brother, Johann
Christoph, on 23 October 1694, but this is pretty unlikely.
The
Canon’s popularity snowballed in the 1970s, after French conductor
Jean-François Paillard made a recording. Since then, the music has been
recorded hundreds of times, and the iconic harmony has made its way into pop
songs, films, and adverts. But even before the public got hold of the piece,
classical composers knew Pachelbel was on to a
good thing – Handel, Haydn, and Mozart all used the iconic bass line in some of
their compositions in the following years.
It’s easy
to be distracted by the tight harmonies and the three pretty violin tunes, but
Pachelbel’s approach to writing the music was almost mathematical. He uses an
ostinato (the same bass line repeated over and over again) and a canon (the
same music repeated by the violin parts, in a round) to construct his piece.
Listen out for the same music being passed between the violins.
No wonder
he had such good compositional technique: Pachelbel wrote more than 500 pieces
over his lifetime. He was a prolific organist in his hometown of Nuremburg, and
even taught the man who became Bach’s teacher. Despite the sheer volume of his
output, there’s still no system to number all of his works.
(Information is extract from Classic FM)
DANG THAO PLAYS "CANON IN D"
CANON IN D - TRANSCRIBED FOR GUITAR BY DANG THAO
DANG THAO PLAYS "CANON IN D"
CANON IN D - TRANSCRIBED FOR GUITAR BY DANG THAO
