The two pieces chosen for this article are particularly famous and are audibly recognisable, if not by name, by most Western populations. Pachelbel's Canon in D was virtually forgotten from the 1700s until it was rediscovered in 1919 by Gustav Beckmann. It gradually gained publicity and exploded into popular culture after being used as the soundtrack for a film. Today it is by far the most famous canon and among 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 multiple voices, in this case violins, play the same piece of music but begin at different tempos and in different keys. Pachelbel wrote his canon for 3 violins and a continuous bass which may have been a bass or a harpsichord. It is a rigorous canon in which the first voice is imitated by the others for the entire duration of the piece. Contains 3 parts in two-bar intervals with new voices introduced in said two-bar intervals. Another typically Baroque feature of the Canon is the use of a Basso Continuo. During the Renaissance and earlier periods, the bass was used as a melodic instrument as the lowest voice, equal to any other instrument. During the 17th century, the bass began the transition to becoming a harmonic instrument that served as the "backbone" for which it is now used almost exclusively. In Canon, the bass serves a dual purpose as Basso Ostinato or Ground Bass, a melodic device that involves continuously repeating the same two-bar sequence for the duration of the piece. It also has an associated jig, a classically baroque dance piece. which deviates from the rigid canonical form in favor of a more lively and cheerful melody. In the ba...... in the center of the paper......Web. 15 December 2011. .Millar, H. M. “Henry Purcell and the Double Bass.” Music and Letters 29.4 (1948): 340. Print."Adagio for strings." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Network. 15 December 2011. "Pachelbel's Canon". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Network. December 15, 2011. .Paravonian, Rob. "Pachelbel Rant." YouTube: Broadcast yourself. November 21, 2006. Web. December 15, 2011. .Schwartz, Steve. "Samuel Barber - Adagio for strings, op. 11." Classical Network, 1995. Web. December 15, 2011. "The Impact of Barber's 'Adagio for Strings': NPR, November 4, 2006. Web. December 15. 2011. .