Johann Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue in D Major • 4K • Recorded "in the round"

As we gathered together in the spring of 2021 to record films when we couldn't offer live concerts, we took a few minutes to put together this experiment of Pachelbel's beloved Canon & Gigue performed in the round, showing the passing along, down the line, of each one of Pachelbel's inventive variations on the ground bass line which is played 28 times. Then, all of that beautiful music, with the violins soaring in glorious harmony, is followed by a romping jig. We had lots of fun, and we hope that you'll enjoy it, too! ♥️

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Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706): Canon & Gigue in D Major P. 27 (circa 1680)

0:00 Opening
0:18 Canon
4:25 Gigue
5:51 Credits

Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin • YuEun Gemma Kim, violin • Cynthia Keiko Black, violin • Steven Lehning, violone • Corey Jamason, harpsichord

Eddie Frank, video • Chris Landen, audio
American Bach Soloists • Jeffrey Thomas, Artistic Director

Filmed in March 2021 in the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (Davis, California).
How we made the video: https://americanbach.org/Videos-Backs...

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), one of the most eminent German organist-composers of the generation before J. S. Bach, held important positions in Vienna, in several German cities, and in his native Nüremberg. He helped establish in Roman Catholic south Germany both the virtuosic keyboard style of Austria and the Protestant chorale and chorale-based forms of north Germany. His works include suites, chorale variations, and chorale cantatas. Pachelbel is also one of the most noted German composers for the organ. His works exhibit the dramatic, aggressive style of the Baroque era, albeit in a formal, almost disciplined manner. However, as exemplified in his six organ arias titled Hexachordum Apollinis, the approach is improvisatory in nature, with sharp contrasts between irregular and free rhythm. Yet these works are well ordered and designed to focus on the virtuosity of the player. In his preface to the works, Pachelbel wrote, “And many believe that music originates from the angels who sing to the honor of the Highest with their threefold ‘Holy!’. Also that the heavenly bodies attend with their wondrous movements, to exhort a beautiful Harmony or Euphony of sounds, of the kind that the worldly-wise Pythagoras and Plato attest to have heard.” Well-known as a teacher, his pupils included Johann Christoph Bach, who passed the teachings along to his younger brother Johann Sebastian. Pachelbel’s influence reached even further: He had a son, Carl Theodor, who became an important musical personality in the early history of the American colonies.

The well-known Canon (and Gigue) in D Major has become one of the most popular of all Baroque works. It has received quite possibly as much radio air-time as any other composition from the Baroque period. And its rise in popularity was due to the arrangement recorded by Jean-François Paillard in 1968. As Bach did in his transcription of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Maestro Paillard added a viola part not found in the original. Also, on occasion, the violins (many more than Pachelbel had intended) engaged for each part double the original notes at an octave above. Certainly it was the romantic treatment of Paillard’s arrangement that initially captured the ears and hearts of millions of listeners, but the release of the recording would soon be followed by the Early Music revival that led to thousands of newly produced and newly conceived performances of Baroque music, rendered — according to the best intentions of their performers —as it was conceived: in the case at hand, a brilliant and sublime tour-de-force for three solo violins, played above a constant but very harmonically satisfying bass line. The Canon was later paired with a sprightly Gigue.

© 2021, American Bach Soloists

American Bach Soloists (ABS) are leading performers in the field of Baroque music, dedicated to historically informed performances of Bach and his contemporaries. ABS provides meaningful, memorable, and valuable musical experiences for our audiences through inspiring performances and recordings, and it supports the preservation of early music through educational programs for students and emerging professionals. Under the leadership of co-founder and Music Director Jeffrey Thomas, the ensemble has achieved its vision of assembling the world’s finest vocalists and period-instrument performers to bring this brilliant music to life.

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