Pachelbel’s Music Box Canon

Johann Pachel­bel (1653 — 1706) wrote his Canon in D major in the late 17th cen­tu­ry, then it dis­ap­peared for a good 300 years. It did­n’t mount a come­back until Arthur Fiedler first record­ed the Canon in 1940, and until the Jean-François Pail­lard Cham­ber Orches­tra pop­u­lar­ized the piece with two famous record­ings (lis­ten here). Now the Canon is every­where. You hear it at wed­dings, of course. It finds its way into Bea­t­les’ tracks. It goes fan­tas­ti­cal­ly viral on YouTube. (This leg­endary clip has 91 mil­lion views.) And now it gets cranked out of music box­es.

This video arranged by Vi Hart has a nice way of strip­ping things down and remind­ing us what a canon is fun­da­men­tal­ly about. Along very sim­i­lar lines, you will want to check out this clip show­ing how a Bach Canon Works. It’s pret­ty amaz­ing.

via Metafil­ter