Saturday, June 14, 2008

Pachelbel's Canon

If anyone has played in an ensemble as a cellist for any length of time, you will hear them complaining about Pachelbel's Canon. I, too have my complaints, and, being a cellist of a quartet, I am fortunate enough to get to play it at nearly every wedding I play at. To my relief, brides usually walk fast, so I only have to repeat the same eight notes four of five times.



Do me a big favor. Never, ever request Canon. And if you have to, don't hum the violin part. Hum the cello part to acknowledge all the pain the cellist is having to go through to make that piece possible.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This seems to be a big fuss with some cellists. Here's the honest truth:

Those people who play cello and like to whine shouldn't play Pachelbel. Anyone who is left is encouraged to smile, enjoy the genius of good music, make money, and focus on things other than their enjoyment of the relative complexity of the music they are playing.

Whiners are encouraged to start a new cellist denomination. Perhaps the Unpachelbelians or Whinerites would be an acceptable name.

Abbey said...

lol - In my opinion, there is a lot of other really great music that could be played besides Pachelbel, so why don't people take advantage of it? Still, I have to play it, and I don't really have any choice, so I suffer in loud silence.

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

From listening to you play on-line, you really seem to know what you are doing, and so I don't think you have much to worry about, Ms. Abbey.

Today, I have been accused of being a hitman...(this was inevitable I suppose).

In comments, both articles:

assassin

thekingpin replies

Also in comments, Jeff's special Coffee machine:

machine

Ben&Brit said...

LOL -- I take it anonymous hasn't played Pachelbel for wedding jobs. Believe me, it's BORING!

Hey, if there weren't a shift every time you played it, it wouldn't be so bad, but it's really hard to get it in tune 54 times in a row... BUT, as Abb says, you can just put your foot out and let people trip on it for amusement :D

Steven said...

Daaaaaaaa Daaaaaa Deeeeeee Deeeee Dummmm Dummm daaaa daaaaa

What on earth are you talking about, I simply LOVE these eight notes. The like, totally speak to me. Yeah, cellists are SUCH CRYBABIES ;)

That video was GREAT!
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize you also posted this here. This is a great video and, like I said before, we recognized every song (maybe I should't admit to that :-) Wait...maybe it was only Pachelbel that we recognized!

Anyway, what a great song!! (I know how much you like exclamation points!) It's so...what's the word...transcendent!

Oh well, "Rock On" Abbey. Give your "bass" a good workout on this song.

See 'ya Sunday!
jj

Anonymous said...

ROFL that was awsome!! I really can't stand the song anyway, but now i feel for you celloists or however it's spelled :P

Sarcastic Sally said...

Hey, I recognized all the songs too! Then again, I had seen the video before... :-P

Devon, you should like the song since you get the tiny cello part.