Pachelbel's Canon: Encyclopedia II - Pachelbel's Canon - Harmony

Pachelbel's Canon - Harmony

The harmonic basis of the canon is a ground bass: the same four-bar bass line and harmonic sequence are repeated over and over, about 30 times in total. The chords of this sequence are: D major (tonic), A major (dominant), B minor (tonic parallel), F# minor (dominant parallel) G major (subdominant), D major (tonic), G major (subdominant), A major (dominant).

The sequence, or rather, close imitations of it, appears elsewhere in the classical canon. Mozart employed it for a striking passage in Die Zauberflöte (1791), at the moment where the Three Youths first appear. Mozart may have learned the sequence from Haydn, who had used it in the minuet of his string quartet Opus 50 no. 2 (1785). Neither Haydn's or Mozart's passage is an exact harmonic match to Pachelbel's, both deviating in the last two bars.

For a parallel in popular music, see below.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Harmony", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki