Often known as Pachelbel’s Canon, the canon by the German Baroque composer, Johann Pachelbel, taken from his Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo (German: Kanon und Gigue für 3 Violinen mit Generalbaß) (PWC 37, T. 337, PC 358), is his most famous composition. It was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue in the same key. Like most other works by Pachelbel and other pre-1700 composers, the Canon remained forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered only in the 20th century. Several decades after it was first published in 1919 the piece became extremely popular. The piece was particularly prevalent in the pop charts of the 1990s, being sampled and appropriated in numerous commercial hits such as Coolio's "C U When U Get There" and Green Day's "Basket Case", among others. Today it is frequently played at weddings and included on classical music compilations, along with other famous Baroque pieces such as 'Air on the G String'.
The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pachelbel's Canon" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachelbel's_Canon ).