Pachelbel: Canon in D (synthesized in just intonation)

YouTube Published on Apr 24, 2012 by ScrollingMusic

"Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706): Canon in D

This very famous work from the Baroque period was actually forgotton for centuries, rediscovered only recently in the early 1900s. Today, it has become quite ubiquitous, and is frequently performed at weddings and included in classical compilation discs. This piece combines the musical devices of canon and ground bass. Three voices are engaged in canon, where each part plays the same phrase offset by a certain number of beats. The fourth voice is a basso continuo, playing the same two-measure phrase throughout the piece. The chord progression in this piece: I - V - vi - iii - IV - I - IV - V is present in other classical works as well as much of the popular music we hear today (U2's "With or Without You" and Blues Traveler's "Hook", to name a few).

This rendition is synthesized using the "strings", "harpsichord" and "voice" instruments of our MATLAB-based synthesizer. It is tuned in just intonation, centered on D = 294 Hz. Just intonation is a tuning system in which the frequencies of the twelve chromatic pitches are chosen based on fixed ratios compared to the center pitch. For example, the frequency of the major 3rd is 5/4 times that of the root. Thus, in this case F# is 367.5 Hz. In just intonation, intervals tend to sound more consonant then in the most common equal temperament system, but if a piece modulates to a new key area, the consonant ratios between frequencies are no longer preserved."