Pachelbel's Canon in D

[Chris Hobson]

For the first half of my life I was pretty unaware of classical music while being vaguely aware that there might be something that I was missing. I liked pop and later discovered prog and various kinds of adult oriented rock. I got to know classical music when I met my wife. Her dad loves classical music and knows a lot about it and has lots of albums so she made me a classical mix tape. So, from there I discovered Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovski, Bach, Handel, and a few more of the well known ones. Shortly after that I started taking piano lessons. Since I really hate piano arrangements of pop songs, I leaned towards classical tunes there as well. Over time I tended to gravitate towards Baroque music, particularly JS Bach. Strange then that Pachelbel's Canon in D slipped under my radar for about thirty years.

We got a new Sky box that meant that I could watch You Tube videos on the real telly. I watched a lot of videos about pop songs that are based on classical themes. Lover's Concerto, A Groovy Kind Of Love, Seven Nation Army being some of the obvious ones. Among these were videos about the huge significance of the Canon and the fact that the chord sequence is really ubiquitous in modern pop music. Still fairly oblivious, I Googled the music for the Amazon Prime ad that was in fact Concrete Jungle by Christine and the Queens. This is a song performed over an orchestral arrangement of the Canon, there are actually quite a few of these. You Tube's algorithm then took me to a Japanese TV ad set at a wedding in which the bride's father has learned to play the Cannon on the piano just so that he can play it for his daughter on her big day.

Now I have decided that I want to learn to play it too. To help me I downloaded lots of different versions of the piece and listened to them. Digging through my pile of music books I found two different arrangements of the piece, both just over thirty bars long. My plan is to learn to play both versions and to splice them together to create a version that is unique to me.

 

[Sally71]

I love that Amazon ad, and I love Pachelbel’s Canon too! It’s one of my favourite pieces of classical music, I wanted to have it playing at my wedding when we were signing the register, but my mum got confused and told my brother to stop the CD playing too early so we ended up signing the register in silence (didn’t have a church wedding, got married in a hotel so had to sort the music out ourselves)

 

[Chris Hobson]

I wanted Liz to walk up the aisle to The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba. She said that she wouldn't be able to do it without laughing. Fair enough but I just liked the tune.

 

[Inka]

Pachelbel’s Canon is beautiful. I do agree about the ‘right’ version though. Some sound just wrong to my ear - too fast, wrong balance.

I love Baroque music Arcangelo Corelli is very good, as is Alessandro Scarlatti, as well as the more famous Purcell and Telemann.

 

[stephenS50]

Like you @Inka I'm a big fan of Baroque Music .I love Baroque composers such as Handel,Corelli,Vivaldi,Scarlatti,Telemann and Henry Purcell.

 

[trophywench]

When Pete & I got married, in church though 2nd time around for both of us, I certainly didn't want the usual Here comes the bride, fair fat and wide - though we did have the Wedding March to come out of church to - so as It's a relatively short church, I picked said Canon. Such a pretty tune! and just a long enough piece to do the job without undue haste.

 

[nonethewiser]

There's a New York duo who do a beautiful version of Canon in D, they are husband & wife & both classically trained, wife on piano husband on cello, they even do modern pop songs by likes of Coldplay, worth having a look on YouTube.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Pachelbel's Canon is one of my faves. It was played when my late wife walked down the aisle too. Gets me every time.

 

[Chris Hobson]

Here is the link to the Japanese ad that is referenced in the OP.

At the moment I can't even play it as well as that guy but I'm working on it. One problem is that the melody is so infectious that, after practicing it, I then can't get it out of my head.

I also looked up Christine and the Queens on Spotify but, apart from the song from the Amazon ad, I found the songs to be rather samey with very unimaginative backing.

 

[Rob Oldfield]

He did write a shed load of other stuff as well the Canon.

The very first one hit wonder?

 

[trophywench]

Just listened, with several tears in my eye. Well, both eyes. But @Rob Oldfield solved that for me!

If @everydayupsanddowns has the same prob with the advert - definitely play Rob's one too, Mike!

 

[Chris Hobson]

That was very funny. Liz said that it made her think of Chesney Hawks, a pop star who had one hit called I Am The One And Only. When my daughter was maybe around ten, we went to a various artists pop show at Hull's East Park. Chesney Hawks came on and asked, "Do you want to hear my hit?" He got a big cheer from the crowd and he sang his hit.

 

[Vonny]

I seem to be alone in thinking canon in D is quite dreary. I love baroque and classical music generally, just not that particular piece. I went down the aisle to a piece from Job: A Masque for Dancing by Vaughan Williams. I'd provided the organist with the sheet music but he clearly hadn't practiced it. Likewise coming back up the aisle to some very badly played Scarlatti. I had to laugh otherwise I'd have cried. Should've stuck to Mendelssohn! If I ever tread the aisle again (hugely unlikely!) I'll come to you instead Chris 😉

 

[Chris Hobson]

I would have to have practiced it. Mainly because, even though I have been playing for quite a long time, my sight reading is still not that fluent. So the only pieces that I can actually play well are those that I can play from memory.

That reminded me of a quote from the guy who taught piano to a small child by the name of Franz Liszt. I didn't used to actually teach him, I would just place impossibly difficult pieces in front of him and watch him in silent amazement.