The two pieces chosen for this article are particularly famous and audibly recognizable, if not by name, by the majority of Western populations. Pachelbel's Canon in D was virtually forgotten from the 1700s until its rediscovery in 1919 by Gustav Beckmann. It gradually gained publicity and broke into popular culture after being used as film music. It is today by far the most famous canon and one of the best-known pieces of Baroque music. The canon is a musical form popular in the Baroque period and is characterized by imitative counterpoint in which several voices, in this case violins, play the same piece of music but begin at different times and in different keys. Pachelbel wrote his canon for 3 violins and a basso continuo which could be a bass or a harpsichord. This is a strict canon in which the first voice is imitated precisely by the others throughout the duration of the piece. It contains 3 parts divided into two bar intervals with the new voices introduced at said two bar intervals. Another typically Baroque feature of the Canon is the use of a basso continuo. In the Renaissance and earlier periods, the bass was used as a melodic device as the lowest voice, on par with any other instrument. In the 17th century, the bass began its transition to become a harmonic instrument constituting a “backbone” for which it is now almost exclusively used. In Canon, the bass serves a dual role as Basso Ostinato or Ground Bass, a melodic device that involves the continuous repetition of the same two-bar sequence for the duration of the piece. It is also associated with a jig, a classically baroque dance piece. which deviates from the strict canonical form in favor of a more lively and joyful melody. Middle of paper......Web. December 15, 2011. .Millar, HM “Henry Purcell and the Ground Bass”. Music and Letters 29.4 (1948): 340. Print. “Adagio for Strings”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Internet. December 15, 2011. “The Canon of Pachelbel”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Internet. December 15, 2011. .Paravonian, Rob. “Pachelbel Rant.” YouTube - Broadcast yourself. November 21, 2006. The web. December 15, 2011. .Schwartz, Steve. "Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings, Op. 11." Classic Net, 1995. Web. December 15, 2011. "The Impact of Barber's 'Adagio for Strings': NPR, November 4, 2006. Web. December 15. 2011. .