Today we are going share a miscellany of approaches to one of the most popular pieces of classical music. It is No. 32 on Classic FM’s list of favourite pieces. Pachelbel’s Canon is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel in his Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo. It is sometimes called Canon and Gigue in D or Canon in D. Neither the date nor the circumstances of its composition are known (suggested dates range from 1680 to 1706), and the oldest surviving manuscript copy of the piece dates from the 19th century. We begin with the standard version.
Like his other works, Pachelbel’s Canon, although popular during his lifetime, went out of style, and remained in obscurity for centuries. The Canon (without the accompanying gigue) was first published in 1919 by scholar Gustav Beckmann, who included the score in his article on Pachelbel’s chamber music. His research was inspired and supported by early music scholar and editor Max Seiffert, who in 1929 published his arrangement of the Canon and Gigue in his Organum series. However, that edition contained numerous articulation marks and dynamics not in the original score. The Canon was first recorded in 1940 by Arthur Fielder.
In 1968, the Jean-Francois Paillard chamber orchestra made a recording of the piece that would change its fortunes significantly. This rendition was done in a more romantic style, at a significantly slower tempo than it had been played at before, and contained obbligato parts, written by Paillard, that are now closely associated with the piece. The Paillard recording was released in June 1968 with other works by Pachelbel and Fasch, all played by the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra.
Several months after the Paillard recording was released, two groups released successful singles with a backing track based on Pachelbel’s Canon: Greek band Aphrodite’s Child with “Rainand Tears” and Spanish group Pop-Tops with “Oh Lord, Why Lord”. In 2002, pop music producer Pete Waterman described Canon in D as “almost the godfather of pop music because we’ve all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years”.
He also said that Kylie Minogue’s 1988 UK number one hit single “I Should Be So Lucky”, which Waterman co-wrote and co-produced, was inspired by Canon in D. The Farm’s 1990 single “All Together Now” has its chord sequence lifted directly from Pachelbel’s Canon. ther songs that make use of the Pachelbel’s Canon chord progression include “Streets of London” by Ralph McTelll (1974), “Basket Case” by Green Day (1994), “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis (1996) (though with a variation at the end) and Maroon 5 used the harmonic sequence of Pachelbel’s Canon for their 2019 single “Memories”.
