Vladimir Pachelbel’s Canon: How the Bach Family’s Teacher Wrote the Wedding Melody
On September 1 everyone talks about school, lessons and teachers. But few people know that one of the most romantic and recognizable musical hits in human history, Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, is the fruit of pure pedagogy!
On Knowledge Day we reveal the secrets of a great teacher whose music sounds today at every second wedding in the world.
Five facts about the teacher who wrote the anthem of all brides
1. The leading teacher of his era
In the seventeenth century you could not simply be a “free-lance composer”: it brought no money. Johann Pachelbel chose the reliable profession of music teacher and church organist. Teaching gave him a stable income, status and the chance to nurture new talents.
2. What did the maestro teach?
Pachelbel taught the organ, the clavichord and the most demanding science of composition. He explained to his pupils how to handle voices in music so that they interweave in perfect harmony.
3. He tied his fate to the Bach family
Pachelbel was a close friend of the Bach family. He became the teacher and godfather of the elder brother, Johann Christoph Bach. And Johann Christoph later raised and taught his younger brother, the brilliant Johann Sebastian Bach. So Pachelbel literally laid the foundation for humanity’s greatest musical genius.
4. A gift for a favorite pupil
It is believed that Pachelbel wrote his famous Canon as a wedding gift for that very pupil, Johann Christoph Bach.
5. Forgotten in history lessons
Most surprising of all: after the teacher’s death in 1706, his music was forgotten for almost 200 years. The Canon gathered dust in archives until it was published, almost by chance, in 1919, and it became a super-hit only in the 1970s.
Today Pachelbel’s Canon is not just a classic to which brides walk to the altar. It is the DNA of modern music: you hear its chords in songs by Maroon 5, Oasis and in duets of world pop stars.
