Johann Pachelbel, Canon in D major

As one might expect, the German organist and composer Johann Pachelbel, born in Nuremberg in 1653, did more in life than just write his highly acclaimed Canon in D major. Pachelbel, indeed, was a key figure of the Baroque period and his work was an important contribution to the development of sacred and keyboard music in the German Lutheran Church. 

For many years he lived in Vienna, where he became acquainted with the work of the Italian Frescobaldi, which greatly influenced his choral preludes, which in turn inspired the music of the same genre by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose parents Pachelbel met in Eisenach while serving as court organist there in 1677, eight years before Johann Sebastian came into the world.

Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706)

Oblivion and rediscovery

Pachelbel, like many other baroque musicians, was a very popular composer in his time. And like so many others in the history of music – Bach himself, for example – he remained forgotten for centuries.

But in the mid-sixties of the twentieth century, violinist and conductor Rudolph Baumgartner and the Swiss Lucerne Festival Strings recorded a baroque piece called Pachelbel's Canon for France's Erato. It was a canon and a gigue by Pachelbel composed around 1700. Surprisingly, within a short time, the piece had become a best-seller.

Canon in D major

A few years later, actor Robert Redford used the piece as part of the soundtrack for the film with which he made his directorial debut, 1980's Ordinary People. As a result, Pachelbel's Canon became for a short period the most popular classical piece of all time.

From that date until today, the various versions are counted by the hundreds, and there are versions for all tastes and for every conceivable instrument or set of instruments.

We are presenting here the San Francisco Early Music Ensemble "Voices of Music", with period instruments and the original ensemble, for three violins and basso continuo.