Johann Pachelbel's Canon

     One of my most meaningful experiences of art would be the first time I ever heard the song, Pachelbel's Canon. I was in middle school, I must have been thirteen. We had "Chamber Music" night every couple months for the concert band. I was playing trumpet, this was before I started playing guitar. I have always had an innate gift for music, so it was very boring playing those concerts. But we always had side performances; one of the side performances involved four saxophones. One of the saxophonists just so happened to be the girl that I was completely head over heels for, so you bet I sat extra attentive. The next thing I heard was just pure bliss. The articulate melody, the walking baseline, the perfect movement of inexpressible sound...That's the way I remember it. I became possessed by every detail of the song. I had an extreme case of musicophilia.
      I walked, sang, and breathed to this song. The fact that the love of my life was the one who played it obviously plays a part in giving the song a certain connotation to me, but the song would have had a similar hold on me otherwise. After I learned the basics of guitar, learning the song completely was what I had to do. I spent two whole weeks staring at lines and lines or horribly written tablature to learn how to play it; and another two months of practice to actually articulate every note. The song still possesses me, but the fact that I can play it helps ease it from conscious mind for the most part. This was one of the very first actual songs I learned on guitar so a lot of my writing is similar to it as far as structure goes, but obviously not as far as quality. Pachelbel knows how to build a song, take everything away, and give it back. The song will always be timeless.