In his lifetime, Johann Pachelbel (1653 – 1706) was renowned for his organ and other keyboard music, whereas today he is also recognized as an important composer of church and chamber music. Little of his chamber music survives, however. Only Musikalische Ergötzung—a collection of partitas published during Pachelbel’s lifetime—is known, apart from a few isolated pieces in manuscripts. The Canon and Gigue in D major is one such piece. A single 19th-century manuscript copy of them survives, Mus.ms. 16481/8 in the Berlin State Library. It contains two more chamber suites. Another copy, previously in Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, is now lost.
The canon (without the accompanying gigue) was rediscovered then published in 1919 by scholar Gustav Beckmann, who included the score in his article on Pachelbel’s chamber music. His research was inspired and supported by early music scholar and editor Max Seiffert, who in 1929 published his arrangement of the “Canon and Gigue” in his Organum series. That edition contained numerous articulation marks and dynamics not in the original score. Furthermore, Seiffert provided tempi he considered right for the piece, but that were not supported by later research.] The canon was first recorded in Berlin in 1938 by Hermann Diener and His Music College, under the title, “Dreistimmiger Kanon mit Generalbass.”
In 1968, the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra made a recording of the piece that would change its fortunes significantly. This rendition was done in a more Romantic style, at a significantly slower tempo than it had been played at before, and contained obbligato parts, written by Paillard. The Paillard recording was released in June in France and was also included on a widely distributed album by the mail-order label Musical Heritage Society in 1968.
In 1970, a classical radio station in San Francisco played the Paillard recording and became inundated by listener requests. The piece gained growing fame, particularly in California.
In 1974, London Records, aware of the interest in the piece, reissued a 1961 album of the CorelliChristmas Concerto performed by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, which happened to contain the piece, now re-titled to Pachelbel Kanon: the Record That Made it Famous and other Baroque Favorites. The album was the highest-selling classical album of 1976. Its success led to many other record labels issuing their own recordings of the work, many of which also sold well.
The Far Mountains 