The original one-hit wonder

One of my Facebook friends, a guy I went to college with and who was a fellow trumpet player, posted this video of a comedian who was once a cello player and thus has a special reserve of hatred stored up for Pachelbel’s Canon in D, because the poor cellist has to play that infernal ground bass, eight notes in all, over and over and over again:

As my Facebook friend noted, we used to play a brass quintet arrangement of this piece, which was OK if you’re a trumpet, horn or trombone player, but not so much if you’re the poor tubist. As I’ve noted many times, the most thankless tasks in classical music are playing the ground bass in Pachelbel’s Canon and playing the snare drum part in Ravel’s Bolero.

Share This Post