Pachelbel's Canon

Canon in D Major is Johann Pachelbel's best-known work.

The Canon in D major (full German title: Kanon und Gigue in D-Dur für drei Violinen und Basso Continuo or Canon and Gigue in D major for three Violins with Bass Accompaniment) is the most famous piece of music by Johann Pachelbel. It was written in or around 1680, during the Baroque period, as a piece of chamber music for three violins and basso continuo, but has since been arranged for a wide variety of ensembles. The Canon was originally paired with a gigue in the same key, although this composition is rarely performed or recorded today. It is well known for its chord progression which has become one of the most used in popular music.

The piece is commonly played at weddings and is frequently present on miscellaneous classical music compilation CDs, along with other famous Baroque pieces such as Air on the G String (a 19th century arrangement of the second movement from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068), and Albinoni's Adagio in G minor (a reconstruction by the 20th century musicologist Remo Giazotto of a lost piece by Tomaso Albinoni). A non-original viola pizzicato part is also commonly added (in a string orchestra or quartet setting) when a harpsichord player is not used to improvising harmonies over the bass line. It is also the standard song for graduation ceremonies.

Structure

The first 9 bars of the Canon in D: the violins play a three-voice canon over the ground bass which provides the harmonic structure. Colors are used above to differentiate and highlight the individual canonic entries.

The Canon in D is a strict three-part melodic canon based, both harmonically and structurally, on a two-measure (or -bar) ground bass:

Ground bass of Pachelbel's canon

The same two-bar bass line and harmonic sequence is repeated over and over, about 50 times in total. The chords of this sequence are: D major (tonic), A major (dominant), B minor (tonic parallel or submediant — the relative minor tonic), F♯ minor (dominant parallel or mediant — the relative minor dominant), G major (subdominant), D major (tonic), G major (subdominant), and A major (dominant). This sequence (or rather, close imitations of it) appears elsewhere in the classical body of work. Mozart employed it for a passage in Die Zauberflöte (1791), at the moment where the Three Youths first appear. He may have learned the sequence from Haydn, who had used it in the minuet of his string quartet Opus 50 No. 2, composed in 1785. Neither Haydn's nor Mozart's passage is an exact harmonic match to Pachelbel's, both deviating in the last two bars. For parallels in popular music, see below.

The actual canon is played over the ground bass by the violins. In the beginning, the first violin plays the first two bars of the canon's melody. At this point, the second violin enters with the beginning of the melody, whilst the first violin continues with the next two bars of the canon. Then the third violin commences the canon, whilst the second violin plays the third and fourth bars and the first violin continues with the fifth and sixth. The three violin parts then follow one another at two bars' distance until the end of the piece. The canon becomes increasingly dense towards the middle of the piece as the note values become shorter (first in the first violin, then in the second, and finally in the third violin). Afterwards, the piece gradually returns to a less complex structure as the note values lengthen once more. There are some 28 repetitions of the ground bass in total. The canon is relatively simple and does not make use of any advanced counterpoint devices such as inversion, augmentation, diminution, etc.

It is often seen to be a set of variations over a ground bass or chord progression, like various composers' variations on La Folia (many of which also date from the Baroque period), whereas it is actually a true canon at the unison over a ground bass, as can be seen above. In this regard it is similar to the 13th century round Sumer is icumen in. There are many different variations of the Canon by many different groups/orchestras.

Pachelbel's canon in popular culture

The Pachelbel canon may represent the most extraordinary instance of the crossover phenomenon in all of music. During a short period in the early 1970s it went from being a quite obscure work of early music to a universally familiar cultural item. It was played in countless versions in its original notes and instrumentation, as well as in arrangements for other instruments and in adaptations into other musical genres. The process shows no sign of abating.

• The canon was first adapted musically in a pop song by the Spanish vocal group Pop Tops on their 1968 hit "O Lord, Why Lord?", which made modest chart showings in both the USA (peaking at #79 on the Hot 100) and the Netherlands. Later that year it was adapted by the Greek band Aphrodite's Child on their hit Rain and Tears. In more recent times, Australian-British string quartet bond played a modified, more updated version of the Pachelbel Canon in their song Lullaby on their 2004 album Classified.

• The soundtrack of the film The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by Werner Herzog features the Canon; it was also used in the film's trailer.

• The second half of Brian Eno's pioneering 1975 ambient music recording Discreet Music consists of a series of versions of Pachelbel's canon to which various algorithmic transformations have been applied, rendering it almost unrecognisable. The chord progression of the canon also surfaces in Eno's 1983 Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks recording on the track Always Returning. In 1991, RCA released a compilation CD called Pachelbel's Greatest Hit. It contained eight different versions of the piece, including performances by James Galway, Isao Tomita, and the Canadian Brass. Also released that year was the P. D. Q. Bach album WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio, a spoof of classical radio and the canon's ubiquity there (WTWP stands for "wall-to-wall Pachelbel").

• Mark Knopfler, known to have gone through a classical musical training, seems to have been inspired by the harmonies in Dire Straits' "Tunnel of Love" (1980).

• Used as the main theme in the Academy Award winning 1980 film Ordinary People.

• In 1984, Japanese singer/actress Togawa Jun's song "Mushi no Onna" was adapted from Canon in D with lyrics.

• Also in 1984, The movie Electric Dreams featured a duet between a Cello player and Edgar the sentient computer.

• In 1998, French film director Gaspar Noé used the Canon in his film Seul contre tous.

• In 2000, The song was featured as part of the opening tune for Arthur's Perfect Christmas.

• The song is featured prominently in the apocalyptic postmodern film Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, along with several compositions by Bach used in its subsequent film, The End of Evangelion.

• The song plays a prominent role in the 2002 Korean comedy "My Sassy Girl." (The song is actually a variation composed by George Winston).

• Snapcase, a former metalcore band from Buffalo, New York adapted the melody and chord progression of the Canon for the song "ID/Hindsight" off of their 2002 album End Transmission.

• Banya released a rock version of Canon titled Canon-D (Part of the Memories #1) for the game Pump It Up Exceed 2. The music in the game is accompanied by an anime-style music video background.

• In 2005, a video spread across the Internet featuring a young Taiwanese guitarist calling himself JerryC (short for Jerry Chang) performing his own energetic rock arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon on electric guitar. Over 50 guitarists have published a "Canon Rock" video.

• A guitar rendition of the same played by Korean guitarist funtwo is one of the most watched Youtube clips of all time.

• There is a standup comedy bit by Rob Paravonian recorded at Penn State about how he hates Pachelbel's Canon, mostly due to the repetitive bass line he had to play on the cello. A recording of this can be found here on YouTube.

• The song is present in the animated version of the manga Ichigo 100%.

• A revised version of this song can be found in the Canon Groove, a popular song for the online game Audition Online.

• Canon in D is featured on the 2006 album, Piano Love Songs, by pianist Bradley Joseph.

• The musical group Vitamin C (Who's lead singer is named Colleen Fitzpatrick) features Pachabel's Canon in its most widely known song Graduation

Musical adaptations

The chord progression ("I V vi iii IV I IV V") of Pachelbel's canon has been incorporated into or otherwise influenced many pieces of contemporary popular music.

Other uses

• It was used as the end theme song to the death section in the popular anime movie Evangelion: Death and Rebirth.
• Football fans in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, are known to use the basic melody to chant in stadiums. One popular Dutch text is "'t is stil aan de overkant" ("it's quiet on the other side"), which they repeat over and over again and which can also sometimes be heard at other sporting events that take place in stadiums, such as ice skating.
• At least one big-city National Public Radio station, during the time of the Taco Bell TV ads involving a "talking" Chihuahua dog, posted a billboard reading, "Yo quiero Pachelbel!".
• The Magyspy theme in the Gameboy Advance Game Mother 3 is a remix of Canon in D.
• The popular videogame Gran Turismo 4 features Canon in D. as one of the tracks listenable during races.
• The World Cup 2006 Coca-Cola TV ads feature the melody from Canon D.
• The song has been used as the theme of a Korean film, The Classic（假如愛有天意 in Chinese), and a variation written for piano also appears in another popular Korean movie, My Sassy Girl, starring Jun Ji-Hyun. Both movies were directed by Kwak Jae-Yong.
• In the anime Kanon, the song was used during a cafe scene in episode 2.
• In Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64, Kirby's level features a slightly modified Canon in the bassline of the chorus section.
• In a scene at the mall from the Dragonball Z movie Super Android 13! (English Dub), Canon in D is used as background music.
• Charmed, episode 3x15, "Just Harried", features this song, which creates the atmosphere and soundtrack for Piper's (Holly Marie Combs) wedding to Leo (Brian Krause)
• In Idoru by William Gibson at page 44, a software agent used to provide musical instruction to the stories protagonist introduces her to DESH 'Diatonic Elaboration of Static Harmony'. This is the common musical pattern of which Johann Pachelbel's Canon is the most famous and classic example.
• Canon in D is featured prominently as background music during the episode of Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' series entitled 'The Persistence of Memory'
• Canon in D is the music featured in the 1980 film "Ordinary People." This movie had a vast impact on the popularity of this piece of music in the United States.

External links

• Information on the Paillard recording
• A list of over 460 recordings
• Easy piano arrangement of Canon in D
• Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel rant