Is Pachelbel's Canon Really a Canon?

The WTF Bach Podcast

I never knew the authentic version of the world’s most famous canon, having only known arrangements which conceal the fact that the music is indeed a canon in three voices. Here is what the ‘real’ canon looks like:

It continues for over 50 bars as a three voice canon at the unison. In my brief survey of this piece, I found one theory that suggests the 9-year-old J.S. Bach was in attendance at the first performance in history.

While the canonic treatment is clever and not worthy of our loathing— we blame its ill fate on others— Bach’s contributions to the genre outshine this example. We continue with Bach’s canonic art in the next episodes.

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