Why do so many musicians hate Pachelbel's "Canon in D" so passionately?
It seems that people either love it or loathe it...
But why?
Is it simply because it has become so popular, and it's not "musically sophisticated" to like such a best-seller?
In 1974, the Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra released a recording of "Canon" and the work quickly became a hit. What if they'd never made this recording? What if "Canon" was still as obscure as the rest of Pachelbel's music, would that change people's opinions of it?
Or is it because musically, the work is quite unsophisticated (basically, it's a set of variations on a simple harmonic theme - D, A, b, f#, G, D, G, A ) but why should that be off-putting?
I'm intrigued...please share your thoughts!
Hafwen.
PS. BIG CONFESSION: I love this work - especially when it's followed by its rarely-heard Gigue!
I actually like the piece - its the never ending procession of questions about it that gets my undies in a wad.
It unfortunately is one of those pieces that people who generally know little about music always know of.
It does tend to be a little overexposed and frankly as pleasant as it is, it really is not that great (in the bigger scheme of things).
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Pachelbel Canon in D major - jean-francois paillard chamber orchestra
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