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Canon in D

Started by bgmnts, November 05, 2019, 10:35:13 PM

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bgmnts

Is this the best piece of music ever made?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlprozGcs80

It is surely in the top 5 of all time right?


Noodle Lizard

We had it played at our wedding, and our daughter's middle name is "Canon". I realise how cliché a choice that is, but it's because a lot of the early bonding with my future wife was through trying to teach her how to play it on the piano.  Her dad had said he wanted her to play it at his funeral.

So there you go. I like it, well enough.

olliebean

Quote from: bgmnts on November 05, 2019, 10:35:13 PM
Is this the best piece of music ever made?

No. It's repetitive and dull and has a wrong note in it. And the bloody penguins.

Twed

#3
Quote from: Noodle Lizard on November 05, 2019, 10:39:34 PMtrying to teach her how to play it on the piano.
Surely you just put your fingers on the keys and Canon in D just occurs.

I'm very snobbish about people who can't pick out tunes on a keyboard. Surely you'd have to be tone deaf to not be able to play this...? I had this struggle with people at school. "Teach me how to play Rugrats!" what you just press the same notes as are in Rugrats, what is wrong with you?

Icehaven

Don't they have this at funerals too? I was playing it on a crappy keyboard once and my friend started going on about how it was played at her grandad's funeral and everything that happened there (just standard funeral stuff) as if I was soundtracking her monologue or something. Pachelbel.

Remind me of Coolio I See U Wen U Get Dere but I dunno which came first. Both total crep.

Twit 2

When I studied composition at uni, in the 1st seminar the lecturer played it as an example of a bad composition.

phantom_power

It was better when The Farm did it

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on November 05, 2019, 10:39:34 PM
our daughter's middle name is "Canon".

I used to go out with a girl called fuji. what are the odds, eh?


Norton Canes


idunnosomename

No and Pachelbel would be the first to fucking tell you it isnt

greenman

Quote from: a duncandisorderly on November 06, 2019, 09:36:49 AM
I used to go out with a girl called fuji. what are the odds, eh?

How much did you Leica?

NJ Uncut

No, it's boring, everyone rips it off

Best rendition of it was in the wool advert.  Every time since then has been shite.

a duncandisorderly


alan nagsworth

damn OP u got roasted fam 😂😂🤣


purlieu

Quote from: olliebean on November 05, 2019, 10:52:41 PM
No. It's repetitive
Worst criticism ever.


I absolutely loved it as a kid, not quite as fond now (since finding far more emotionally engaging orchestral music), although when it comes on I do realise that, despite being overplayed, it really is quite lovely. I think I'm definitely more fond of the oft-confused-with* 'Air on a G String' by Jim Bach.

*I once saw Pachelbel's Canon get subtitled 'music from the Hamlet advert' on teletext 888. Made me angry.

Twed

I get it, purlieu. I think Canon taps directly into something that humans find innately moving, on a purely aesthetic level, but it's completely at odds with the rational part of the mind, which asks questions like "is this actually good? Could I be spending my time listening to more complex and fulfilling things?" and then the truly vain thoughts that boil down to "this is very basic and I am too important and refined to care about basic things".

And then it's just overplayed, which you can't deny gets boring.

It gets picked on 'Desert Island Discs' by guests who pretend they listen to classical but don't really have a clue. Bach must be spinning in his grave at people thinking he wrote it. However, it's been stolen by a lot of pop composers down the years and I've even heard a Lee Perry Upsetters track quote it (I will post a link when I remember which one).

MojoJojo


alan nagsworth

Quote from: bgmnts on November 06, 2019, 01:47:26 PM
I feel it

Mm, some chucklesome pretension in here though I must admit

kngen

Sorry to add to the pile-on, but I was quite surprised when I found out it was actually written by a classical composer and wasn't something tossed off for a Clavinova demo track that had somehow lived on past its usefulness. At least Fur Elise, despite its equal over-exposure, it actually quite satisfying to play, much in the way Lick My Love Pump it is - just simple lines, inter-twining.

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on November 06, 2019, 03:44:34 PM
Bach must be spinning in his grave at people thinking he wrote it.

Christ, do people think that? What an injustice! Even the slowest of his many, many children (Barry Bach) could probably have come up with something a little more complex.

bgmnts

I suppose maybe simplicity can affect you more than something complex.

idunnosomename

Here's a fun fact. There is significant doubt that Bach wrote Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It has uncharacteristically crude harmony and also would seem to be impossible to play in that key on an organ of his time (though the earliest score doesn't specify an organ)

Problem is there's not really any better candidate for an author who could have written something so ecplosive in the late 17th century so it's still basically attributed to him by consensus

popcorn

Quote from: Twit 2 on November 06, 2019, 06:53:17 AM
When I studied composition at uni, in the 1st seminar the lecturer played it as an example of a bad composition.

What did they say was bad about the composition?

chveik

Quote from: Twed on November 06, 2019, 03:35:00 PM
I get it, purlieu. I think Canon taps directly into something that humans find innately moving, on a purely aesthetic level, but it's completely at odds with the rational part of the mind, which asks questions like "is this actually good? Could I be spending my time listening to more complex and fulfilling things?" and then the truly vain thoughts that boil down to "this is very basic and I am too important and refined to care about basic things".

And then it's just overplayed, which you can't deny gets boring.

I'm not sure it's snobbish to think that there are a shitload of baroque music pieces better than that one, without even needing to rationalize it. 

idunnosomename

Quote from: popcorn on November 06, 2019, 05:06:36 PM
What did they say was bad about the composition?
the bass plays the same fucking thing beginning to end i guess

Twed

Quote from: chveik on November 06, 2019, 05:12:18 PM
I'm not sure it's snobbish to think that there are a shitload of baroque music pieces better than that one, without even needing to rationalize it.
I said that it's snobbish to deny that it's acceptable to enjoy Canon because there are more accomplished compositions available. That's different.