Thy Kingdom Come!

Pachelbel’s Canon D mayor

Br. Jose Padilla, LC
Dr. Cherles Mercier
Music Paper

The first thing I want to say about this work of Pachelbel's canon is a lie. What we know now as
Pachelbel's Canon is a version recorded by a 20th century Frenchman, since the original is from
the 17th century and some of the things, we associate with this Canon are not by Pachelbel.
Today we associate the Canon with weddings, romance scenes in movies, being a popular
representative of classical music (No. 7 in the world), and even the presentation of commercial
advertisements for encyclopedias such as Larousse. Pachelbel likely composed his Canon in D
major like Arthur Fiedler's 1940 recording rather than a slow, romantic piece as we know it
today.

So why is it now such an important work in our days when it was not before?
To begin with, Pachelbel's canon was not the only canon he wrote, but one of the many he
composed, the D major canon. This canon was a work forgotten by history and now we only
have a manuscript of the XIX century, that is lost in oblivion and like most of the works of
Pachelbel. The German Gustaf Bedmann wrote an article entitled Johann Pachelbel. Bedmann
published Pachelbel's canon for the first time, but the little influence on society generated almost
nothing, only a few recordings.
When Jean-François Paillard heard the canon, he thought of making the most of it by turning it
into a romantic piece. Paillard recorded his version in 1970 and instead of lasting 3 minutes like
Arthur Fiedler's version mentioned above, it would last more than twice as long, 7 and a half
minutes. It was a romantic version, in the artistic sense and in the sense of love, that changed the
concept of the work, it proposed a new way of seeing Pachelbel's canon in D major.
For Paillard to produce a new slower version with sweet and romantic overtones would cause
him problems. That is why he added some sixteenth notes (semiquaver) pizzicatos (a way of
producing the sound in some stringed instruments that consists of plucking the strings or
pinching them with the fingertips). In the original we do not find these pizzicatos; they were only
added by Paillard. Since then, a lot of recordings of Pachelbel's canon have used and imitated
this initial pizzicato that Pachelbel did not add.
From this interpretation the Canon became the criterion for many other interpretations. It would
be very bold to say that Pachelbel's canon is the predecessor of Pop songs because it has twelve
refrains placed one after the other but composed in 1690.
Analysis of Pachelbel's Canon in D major
What does Canon mean?

 A canon is a musical form in which the voices imitate each other very strictly. That is to
say:
 Violin 1 starts in measure 3 with a single melody. Then he continues with his other
melody.
 Violin 2 starts with the melody of Violin 1 in the fifth bar of the piece. While violin 1
continues alone.

The same happens when violin 3 enters: it starts playing what violin 1 played and violin 2 played
the previous measures.
  Violin 2 plays what violin 1 played two measures back.
 Violin 1 plays a new and different melody with eight notes.
 Throughout the piece the three voices will chase each other.

Basso continuo

With the three voices the work sounds elegant, but the bass is missing. A basso continuo that the
composer gives you, but with whatever you want added as accompaniment. It is the same as now
for a modern musician you give him a cipher, for example: D A Bm F# G D G A and with this it
accompanies the melody.

Ostinato
In addition to what we have talked about, the bass makes an Ostinato, which means it is a figure
repeated repeatedly, like these eight notes of the canon that are repeated 28 times.
Is composing a canon easy?

For the composition of a canon, and especially that of Pachelbel, it is not easy. Let’s say that you
must match the yellow bars with the orange and pink bars. But also, the green bars must agree
with the orange and yellow ones. The same with the blue bars. That is, in mathematical terms it
would be: All measures "X" must fit in the measures X+2, X+4, X-2, X-4.