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I recently attended "The Best of Baroque" performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. One of the pieces played was Pachelbel's Canon in D. The conductor, Rossen Milanov explained what a Canon was. It seems very similar to a Bolero so my question is, what is the difference?
A canon is a round, such as "Row Row Row Your Boat."
The Pachelbel piece is properly called a ground. (No jokes about ground round!!) It is not a canon, despite the title. A ground is a bass line that is repeated. The bass line suggests the chords that are used above it. This is why the Pacelbel piece is so repetitive: Pachelbel has used the same sequence of chords every time.
"Bolero" is neither a ground or a canon. It's just the same music repeated again and again (and again and again......).
mb
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Marbeth
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