Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Bedtime Music: An Old Favorite



This lovely piece, the Canon in D major (in form, a canonic variation on a ground bass, for the repeated eight-note figure in the bass), by the German Middle Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was fairly obscure as recently as the 1970s, but became a favorite when it was revived by guitarist Jean-Francois Pallaird. It gained its greatest theme, however, as the main theme from the 1980 Academy Award winning film Ordinary People.

When I was in college chorale, in the early eighties, we sang a choral setting of the Canon in D. I only remember the opening:

In the silence of our souls, O Lord, we contemplate thy peace,
Free from all the world's desires, free from fear and all anxiety. . .


Lovely music for bedtime, no?

PS Some of you may recognize that the portrait that accompanies this video is of Mozart, born more than a century later than Pachelbel. Pay no mind; just enjoy the music.

4 comments:

  1. And you sing as well?

    Is there no limit to your skills?

    I'm amazed Pachelbel's Canon was an obscure piece until the 1970's. It is beautiful and haunting music.

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  2. Same here, Moon. I love this piece--and looking for it led me to so many other classical pieces I would never have heard otherwise--Albinoni's Adagio, Bach, Purcell--great ones.

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  3. Yeah, Barry--I'm not much of a cook (although I try), I'm hopeless about anything mechanical, and I failed every remedial math class going. ;) But yeah, I do sing quite well. Take that after my mom.

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