The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory

Pachelbel’s Canon in D
Our final melody is a bit different from the ones we’ve examined so far. It’s different
because rhythmically, it’s very simple—nothing but half notes.
You’ve probably heard this melody before—it’s Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D
(sometimes just called “Pachelbel’s Canon”—like he only wrote this one!) and
it’s been used in a number of different movies and television shows. You might
have even heard it in the background of a commercial for GE light bulbs back
in the 1990s. (They bring good things to light.) In any case, it’s a compelling
melody, despite its rhythmic simplicity.
The very simple melody for Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
This melody also is different in that it doesn’t use a lot of symmetry or repetition.
(Except for the repeated half notes, of course!) It’s actually the stepwise
intervals between the notes that propel this melody forward; each pitch leaning
forward to the next, one after another, almost in a giant spinning circle of
tones. And then the last note, C#, is the leading tone of the scale (D Major);
you jump back to F# (the third of the scale) and start all over again.
The point of examining this particular melody is that you don’t need fancy
rhythms to create a memorable melody. Pure tones, played slowly and simply,
can be quite lyrical—if you pick the right ones!
Composing Your First Melody
Now that you know some of the techniques you can use to create a melody, let’s
put those techniques to work.
As you learned with Pachelbel’s Canon, a melody doesn’t have to include complex
rhythms. The right notes on the right pitches are what you need to start
any new tune.
One of the primary rules of composing is to base your melody on a specific
scale. And, as you’ll learn in Chapter 9, there are three notes in a scale which,
when played together, create what we call a major triad. These three notes represent
a good place to start for our first melody.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s start in the key of C, using the C Major scale. The
three notes we want to use are the tonic, the third, and the fifth—C, E, and G.
So let’s start our melody with two half notes and a whole note, starting with C
and progressing up to G on the whole note.
Chapter 8: Melodies 95
Note
To be fair, the melody illustrated
in Pachelbel’s Canon
in D is just the first four
measures of a much
longer melody. The musical
form (canon) used in
this piece is like a round,
where the melody starts in
one part and then continues
while other parts start
up with the same melody.
See Chapter 11 to learn
more about the canon
and other musical forms.