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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), and Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, which is a reconstruction 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 improvise harmonies over the bass line.
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Structure
The name Canon in D is slightly misleading because the piece is not a strict canon but rather a chaconne or a passacaglia. It is based, both harmonically and structurally, on a two-measure ground bass:
The same two-bar bass line and harmonic sequence is repeated over and over, about 30 times in total. The chords of this sequence are: D major (tonic), A major (dominant), B minor (tonic parallel), F minor (dominant parallel), G major (subdominant), D major (tonic), G major (subdominant), A major (dominant). The sequence (or rather, close imitations of it) appears elsewhere in the classical canon. 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 bass by the violins. In the beginning, the first violin plays the first variation. After this is over, it starts playing the second variation, and the second violin starts playing the first variation. Then the first violin starts playing the third variation, the second violin starts playing the second variation, the third violin enters with the first variation, and so on. The structure of the canon becomes increasingly dense towards the middle of the piece as the variations grow in complexity. Afterwards, the piece gradually returns to a less complex structure. There are 28 variations in total. The canon is relatively simple and does not make use of any advanced counterpoint devices such as inversion, augmentation, diminution, etc.
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Pachelbels 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 popularization is thought to have originated with the release of a 1970 recording of the work (Erato 98475) performed by the Paillard Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jean-François Paillard. It was also brought to recognition by what is often considered as the best recording of Pachelbel Canon, arranged and performed by Karl Münchinger with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1970.
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. 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.
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)
In 1984, Japanese singer/actress Togawa Jun's song "Mushi no Onna" was adapted from Canon in D with lyrics.
In 2000, The song was featured as part of the opening tune for Arthur's Perfect Christmas.
Banya released a rock version of Canon titled Canon-D (Part of the Memories 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 of a young Taiwan guitarist calling himself JerryC, short for Jerry Chang - who arranged and performed an energetic rock version of Pachelbel's Canon on electric guitar another performance. Over 50 guitarists have published a "Canon Rock" video.
A Rock Canon D is played on a Red Special by Andy. *.
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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 music:
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Other uses
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.
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 listenables 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.
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