This man composed the all-time greatest one-hit-wonder music piece.
Okay, that image is really not a portrait of the man, because
we do not know what he looked like. That image is an AI
representation of generic-looking male whom he
may have resembled.
Anyway, most people do not know his name. However, most
people in the U.S. and in Europe know of his magnificent
composition, even though they do not know its title.
The one-hit-wonder (I am using the term facetiously) is
titled "Canon in D Major" and it was composed in the
late 1600s by Johann Pachelbel who created many works
in what is now classified as the baroque style. The works
were popular for a while, but they were mostly forgotten
by 1730.
Two hundred years later, music scholars delved into the
forgotten baroque compositions. Canon in D Major was
rediscovered. It was performed here and there in classical
music halls in Europe. Its tempo was rather fast. In 1938, the
first phonographic performance was pressed into a record.
Legend (which probably not entirely true) has it that, in the
1950s, someone decided to play a recording of the work at
a slower speed than intended. The legend is that the
full grandeur of the work jumped out for the first time.
The slowed-down Canon, with embellishments and interpretations
by various conductors, started to catch on.
In 1968, conductor Francois Paillard produced a seven-minute
recording of the piece in what started a wave of popularity
which exists to this day. Listener demands for playing the
melody inundated classical music FM radio stations. Several
albums with the arrangement were pressed in the 1970s.
In 1980, movie director Robert Redford had composer
Marvin Hamlisch prepare an interpretation for the movie
"Ordinary People." A 1981 General Electric light bulb
commercial utilized the melody. In the 1990s, it became
a popular Christmastime arrangement. It was used effectively
in jewelry commercial aired in the Christmas Season. Trans
Siberian Railroad recorded a version featuring a children's
choir. It has been a staple of weddings. The evolution of the
work over the past hundred years has been astounding. Many
people regard it as their all-time favorite music piece.
Click the above image for a YouTube file containing
various interpretations of Canon in D Major.
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