Pachelbel Canon in D and oher Baroque Hits - Album 9 of 10

Album Title: Pachelbel Canon
Artist: New Bach Collegium Musicum et. al

Album 9 of 10 in the 10 Album Challenge

Thoughts

Truth in posting notice: I don't know exactly which album had the version I first listened to, but at some point in my youth, I first heard the piece known to the world as "Pachelbel's Canon in 'D'" and I was mesmerized.

When I started buying music, in addition to others I've written about in this series (and a several dozen I haven't mentioned) I bought classical "sampler" albums looking for the version I remembered from my youth.  Ultimately, I think I ended up with four LPs and three CDs.  I even have a CD with nine different versions of "the Canon" - different instrumentations, different tempos, different numbers of times the theme is repeated.  Utimately, I am not even sure I ended up finding the elusive right one.  But I have many versions now!  I think the version on the CD pictured is it, but I've heard so many by now, it's hard to be certain.

Anyway, this piece of music was so beautiful that, even though we didn't listen to "classical" music in our house much, and even though I hadn't really liked any of the other classical music I might have heard to that point, this piece by Pachelbel caused me to reconsider.

Over the years, I've grown to appreciate more orchestral music, but it all stems from this piece.

Which, by the way, is not technically a canon -- it's a passacaglia (or at least that's what I learned from one of the Great Courses.). Speaking of which, I listened to a whole Great Course on How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, and I doubt I would have ever done that, if the "Canon" had not started me down a nice side path in my musical tastes.

Trivia which may be entirely inaccurate: Have you ever seen Soylent Green? There's a scene in this dystopian story where the lead character's father is enjoying some pleasures from the old days before everything went to hell.  I believe the "Canon in 'D'" was playing during that scene.  I am so convinced of this, I would prefer never to see the film again, in case I am wrong.  It was a very memorable scene, and I really enjoy having the Canon in my memory with it.

OK, that's nine.  Nine of ten.  I have to select one more.  One!  Hard to do, because I have too many options.  I wonder which one I'll select.