Tune Tuesday – Canon in D

Tune Tuesday gets a bit cultural today. You see, Johann Pachelbel was born on this day in 1653. So our tune is a bit “high class” but familiar.

Accoring to wiki: Pachelbel was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.

Our song is a familiar one, especially if you have been to many wedding ceremonies. It was also adapted into a Christmas song for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Pachelbel’s Canon (also known as Canon in D, P 37)

The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue known as Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo. Both movements are in the key of D Major. The piece is constructed as a true canon at the unison in three parts, with a fourth part as a ground bass throughout. 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 1838 to 1842.

Like his other works, Pachelbel’s Canon went out of style, and remained in obscurity for centuries. A 1968 arrangement and recording of it by the Jean-Francois Paillard chamber orchestra gained popularity over the next decade, and in the 1970s the piece began to be recorded by many ensembles, while elements of the piece, especially the chord progression, were used in a variety of pop songs. By the early 1980s its presence as background music was deemed inescapable. The composition is famously used in weddings and funeral ceremonies in the western world.

For Music Geeks – here is the Chord progression:

No.	Chord	Scale degree	Roman Numeral
1	D major	tonic	I
2	A major	dominant	V
3	B minor	submediant	vi
4	F♯ minor	mediant	iii
5	G major	subdominant	IV
6	D major	tonic	I
7	G major	subdominant	IV
8	A major	dominant	V

Happy Birthday to Johann Pachelbel!