Canon is a pretty impressive and extremely elegant piece of music, but I'm not entirely sure if I'd place it as the most beautiful ever composed. Of course it's a classic in every single meaning of the word, but there are a good many lilting pieces out there by a good number of composers that can match the atmosphere. Although I'm not entirely sure if any get the overall effect as Canon due to how easily it's recognized.

I'd have to put it way up there, but claire de lune is better IMO. Of course they're two different styles and tones.

Canon in D is indeed most excellent...but....
 

I'm a composer/ ex-concertist myself and I've always enjoyed Canon in D which has a melody that really sinks down deep and you find it playing in your head when you go to bed and wake up in the morning.

Yet, for that period, I find the music of Vivaldi, the greatest violin virtuoso of his day (only Paganini bested him as a violin master) especially the four part Four Seasons to be perhaps the most enjoyable Baroque period piece of all time. The four parts are all excellent and the little dance included in partIII is definitely cool as hell.

But then everybody is different and the pieces that are my favorites like Chopin's Prelude in F# minor, Etude in E major, Liszt's Totentanz, Bach's Tocata and Fugue in D minor (Leopold Stokowsky's arrangement for orchestra as heard on the original Fantasia by Disney) and the A minor fugue from Mozart's Fantasy and Fugue in C Major which is perhaps the most complex three voci fugue in existence and a gem to play. Mozart could do counterpoint when in the mood. His variations on the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" them as it is known today are the non plus ultra of variations until Beethoven came along and won the 1st prize for variation genius.

And of course Beethoven's 9th symphony and the Emperor Concerto of his are really great stuff. But here there is no right and wrong. In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy came to Shroeder who was playing Beethoven on the piano and said "Hey, that Beethoven wasn't so great" and Shroeder said "Not so great, what do you mean?" and Lucy said "What about Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Rachmaninoff...." and mentioned about 50 names of composers.
Without a missed beat Shroeder looked up and said "They were great too!"

And that about says it all. Their names will last as long as humanity exists which is more than you can say for the gimmicy and overpromoted pop music which can net you millions of dollars but be totally forgotten ten years later.
The Great Composer's music is like a precious Diamond that'll last the test of time. Most of pop music is like shiny zirconias or crystal glass. It is shiny and pretty but does not have anything of lasting value and soon will be, if not totally forgotten, shelved somewhere in some library archives listened to by nobody. Why people get so caught up with the lives of these modern ersatz musicians and practically kill themselves to go to a concert and wait all those hours in line to hear somebody that nobody will give a damn about five years later is beyond me. Still here and there, even in pop music are some gems and some artists whose names will also last probably as long as humanity exists. Among the piles of garbage some shiny nuggets of gold can be found for those who take the time to search.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but classical music is not inherently better than any other genre just due to the fact that its musicians are remembered today. You can't intelligently say for sure that almost every modern artist will be tossed aside in a matter of years.

Really? You ever heard of W. C. Handy. If you really know music than you might have. He was a famous Blues man in his day about one hundred years ago. He was really famous in his day, but you don't need to go back that far to get unremembered musicians. How bout Big Joe Turner. He performed the second rock song to top the charts. The vast majority of famous musicians in their day and age are not remembered. Yes there will always be a few who stick around with us like the Beatles. Classical music is much different. Almost every single classical musician who was famous in their day's music is still played. Even bad classical music is often still played such as Monteverdi (mainly cause he popularized Opera). Also the form of classical music is countless times as complex as almost all the music we listen to today (I would say all but in music theory you also learn about Jazz because Jazz composer's seriously understood rhythm). Chopin used a complex chord structure made purely out of dissonance to write entire pieces without any melody and it sounds great (I can't currently remember the name of the piece I'm thinking off sorry). Beethoven would use very, very few melodies to compose great long movements of a symphony and you barely realize your mostly listening to one melody over and over again. That's variation at it's very best. Will some modern artists be remembered, of course, but the vast majority get washed out with time and that is not true with classical.

Actually it depends largely on social factors. Classical guitarists, who should only be second to Pianists in their ability to recreate compositions accurately are rarely remembers. I'm reading a book called "Practicing: A Musicians return to music" and he discusses how Fernando Sor and Marko Giulianni (spelled wrong I'm sure) were greats, and that the later sat at the head of Viennas Musical Society in 1808 with Beethoven and who among us has heard his music?

It depends on the music as well. Rock bands are still imitating and beholden to a movement that took place 40 years ago. Rap forgot who was #1 yesterday.

Good song. Very Serene.

Yeah there are classical composer who are forgotten definatly, but the vast majority who were famous are still famous. Bach got forgotten but Mendelssohn heard it and revived him. Every composer that was talked about back then even if you've never heard him has had his music played in the modern day and age. No music has lasted even close to the amount of time, and even now how many people do you see playing Louis Armstrong's music? A few of course, but something like Don Giovanni plays almost all the time. About the classical guitarist thing. They are never forgotten infact few are ever discovered. John Williams (differen guy then the great film score composer), Andres Segovia, Agustin Barrios are a few of the very few classical guitarists that ever really get heard. There's good reason too, while it requires great skill it usally doesn't sound as good as the actual piano or orchestra playing the same piece.

meh, not that great, overrated and overplayed.

Jean-Francois Paillard
 

The Canon is gorgeous, but its GOT to be Jean-Francois Paillard's recording (everyone else butchers it IMO). Look it up on Amazon...

There's a moment near the end that recurs about three times where there's like a suspended fourth against something else-- I'm not sure, but that one split second is exquisite & brings tears to my eyes...

~ josh