The Canon in D major is the most famous piece of music by Johann Pachelbel - it is popularly known simply as Pachelbel's Canon. It was written in or around 1680 during the Baroque period as a piece of chamber music for 3 violins and basso continuo, but has since been arranged for a wide variety of ensembles. It was originally followed by a gigue in the same key, though this is rarely played today.
The canon, which is in 4/4 time, uses a number of techniques: as well as an orthodox canon, the canon is given in inversion (that is, the following voice is upside-down compared to the leading voice), in retrograde (the follower is back-to-front), augmentation (with longer note values) and diminution (with shorter note values). It is an example of canon ad semibrevem (entry at the whole note).
It is commonly played at weddings.
The chord progression and melody of Pachelbel's canon has been used extensively in popular music, particularly blatant examples being the The Farm's 1991 single "All Together Now", and the 1999 hit by Vitamin C, "Graduation (Friends Forever)".
Side two of Brian Eno's pioneering 1975 ambient music recording Discreet Music consists of a series of versions of the Pachelbel canon to which various algorithmic transformations have been applied, rendering it almost unrecognisable.
In 1991, RCA released a compilation CD called Pachelbel's Greatest Hit. It contained eight different versions of the piece, including performances by James Galway, Isao Tomita, and the Canadian Brass.
Pachelbel's canon in popular music
