Fun
A Superfamous Melody
Dear Kay,
Once again, I found myself marooned on I-440 West, a regular occurrence now that they have turned that six miles of interstate into Nashville’s most elaborate craft project.
And once again, I left planet Earth for a place far, far from the dump trucks and gravel mountains.
Floating into my Toyota was Canon in D Major, that exquisite melody by the Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It is so familiar that when I hear it, I check to see if I’m wearing dyed-to-match shoes and a dress made of moiré taffeta. How many weddings have we seen where the wedding party wanders in to this music?
It is hard to hear anew something that you’ve heard a hundred times. Less than five minutes long, written centuries ago, there it was. Brand new. It was sublime, a joy, a gift to hear.
Love,
Ann
PS A special thank you to Nashville’s classical music station, 91.1 FM, who are single handedly getting many of us Nashvillians to and from work with a song in our hearts. Not an easy feat, let me tell you.
PSS Aileen just sent along a piece from The New York Times, “How ‘Canon in D Major’ Became the Wedding Song.” Thanks for this, Aileen!
Wow! This gave me goosebumps. Thank you for sharing. Magically, the music floated in and transported me to moments in my past. Lovely way to start my Saturday. Not surprising…It’s an MDK snippet, after all!
Thank you!
Lovely to hear it with fresh ears after many years.
Lovely! Yes, Ann, it was familiar. This surprised me because of my limited acquaintance with classical music. Peaceful and relaxing, a nice start to Saturday morning. Thanks!
I walked down the aisle at my own wedding to this at my fiancé’s request. Every time I hear it I am magically transported back to my wedding day. Almost 22 years ago. ❤️
Glorious!! Joyful!! Sun is shining, trees are swaying in the breeze, all is right with the world.
My husband’s favorite! So much so that one year our girls gave him a CD (remember those?) titled Pachelbel’s Greatest Hits. A compliation of various artists and their renditions of the classic. I had to go pull it out after enjoying this morning’s snippets.
As Aileen, this was chosen for our wedding processional in the summer of 1981.
So beautiful! Just last Sunday my choir sang this as a 4-pt anthem (the words being the least important part). The organ accompaniment was as lovely as this, in its own way.
oh, thank you! this has long been my favorite piece of music. we even had it played by the church organ at my father’s funeral, followed by Amazing Grace on bag pipes. it was lovely hearing it again this morning sitting on our back porch watching Mother Bluebird flit in and out of our bluebird house feeding her 5 newly hatched young. lovely, just lovely.
Thanks for the joy! It is fun to watch the violinists trade the complex part, and hearing it played on period instruments sans synthesizers is always a plus.
The first time I heard this was in the opening scenes of the movie Ordinary People—Donald Sutherland running through the woods to the strains of this beautiful music—or at least that’s my memory of it. Tracked down the name of the music and have loved it ever since.
Wonderful arrangement. Thank you for sharing it.
Would it have killed him to give the cello a little moment of fun?
Kidding! Sitting here crying to it as per usual.
Speaking of the cello part, have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
I loved this reminder….your comment about dyed to match shoes has me laughing. Now that I live in CT, I navigate I-95 almost daily getting to one town or another..either that or take RT 1 and wait at myriads of stop lights. I couldn’t do it without music….well sometimes I succumb to MSNBC, which I enjoy but it also raises my blood pressure and certainly doesn’t calm me down. Canon in D is now going to be on regular rotation.
I could knit to that forever it is so calming and wonderful.Thanks for sharing. That was one of the songs played at our wedding. I introduced my late husband to this piece and he said it helped with his PTSD.
Here’s a shout out to WETA 90.9 Washington DC’s classical station. It has gotten me through 10+ years of living in the Capital Region and it’s daily traffic snarls.
So nice to hear this played at a lively tempo!
Thank you for this beautiful moment of memories—both joy-filled and poignant. For just a few minutes I was able to ignore the beeping and banging of the “very large large craft project” taking place in our backyard. This new condo building was supposed to be closed in within the first 6 months of groundbreaking. One year later, it is almost closed in. Almost.
Simply beautiful..,..could listen to this all day
Give WMOT a try as well.
Also, a shout out to local classical station KDFC 90.3 for being around whenever I am in my car in the hell that is the San Francisco Bay Area freeway system. More than once they have seemed to know that I need to hear the Canon in D as I head into the infamous Maze with traffic-frayed nerves.
I would often play this soothing (slower version) for my mom after she acquired dementia. She’d make a little smile or tap her hand. A way for us to communicate. I’d heard the rythym is that of a resting heartbeat. Turns out it’s a perfect match for knitting, too. Someone posted a theory that the Canon in D is the meaning of life: https://soulcuracy.com/2013/09/25/you-want-the-meaning-of-life-look-no-further-than-pachelbels-canon-im-not-kidding-2/
Good luck to all Nashville drivers (and those traveling the I-5 in San Diego, too!)
I remember a day when my daughter was listening to music to make selections for her wedding. Her father heard this and asked what it was. She told him. He had an odd look but said nothing at the time. Later he asked why she wanted Taco Bell music for her wedding. We still call it Taco Bell’s Canon. I do love it and it was beautifully performed at the wedding.
Hey, Voices of Music! They have a number of great HD YouTube videos, Baroque music and earlier. I first heard the Canon as part of a production of Cyrano de Bergerac almost 50 years ago.
So good I listened to it twice and subscribed to the YouTube channel. Thanks
Saturday afternoon, after trying to organize my large collection of knitting patterns and oh, my GOD, am I a happy person when sitting down at the computer I am serenaded by Pachelbel. Thank you my dear for the lovely gesture.
Classical music is the key to Nashville traffic. But for a real fun experience try movie soundtracks while going at a snail’s pace downtown. It can make you feel surreal like you in the movie. Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my favorites.
Whenever I hear this music I am immediately in The Zone because it was the background music for a TV ad for “Pure New Wool” here in the UK when I was a kid. The ad was basically a ready-to-sheer sheep walking calmly across the screen, stopping, and turning its head to camera. Simple….. and serendipitous!
The performers in that video are colleagues of mine. It makes my heart swell and I know it will theirs too to hear how enriched people are feeling by this!
Wow, Amber, that’s amazing! I looked at a number of performances of Canon in D Major before picking this one. I loved the fact that they use period instruments, and that the arrangement is what the original instrumentation sounded like. It lets the pure beauty of the melody shine—and the players are so talented. Please let them know how much we all love this.
HELP! My Field Guide #10 has never arrived. I can’t figure out how to “locate” it, or get it resent…
Respectfully, I have a different response to Canon in D, possibly because I played string bass school.
Light swearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
A beautiful piece to fall asleep to.
Thank you so much for posting this. It is indeed the BEST!
Wow this is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful. Knitting at midnight while hubby’s out of town and this is a lovely piece of quiet silvery yarnover around my brain.