Johann Pachelbel Biography
Baroque Composer Best Known for Canon in D Major
Johann Pachelbel, a master organist, excelled in sacred church music. Today, he is famous for Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Pachelbel, famous for Canon in D, was a celebrated German organist, teacher and composer and was one of the most significant predecessors of Johann Sebastian Bach. Having been employed as church organist for most of his life, his words were primarily sacred music for harpsichord, organ and voices.
His liturgical organ music was exemplary, in particular, his organ chorales, and his non-liturgical keyboard music was noteworthy, including fugues and variations, for example, his 1699 Hexachordum Apollinis.
Early Life of Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel was born in Nuremberg, Bavaria, c. August 30, 1653. Prior to 1669 he studied music locally, then entered the University of Altdorf, also serving as organist. His father could not afford to support him at university for more than a year, but in 1670 he was given a special scholarship to the Gymnasium Poeticum in Regensburg.
Early Musical Career
He went to Vienna in 1673 to become deputy organist at St. Stephen's Cathedral, and four years later, became court organist at Eisenach for a year. In 1678 he became organist at the Protestant Church at Erfurt, serving there for twelve years.
Pachelbel was much in demand as an organist, composer and teacher. He was a friend of the Bach family, a teacher of Johann Christoph Bach.
At 28, Pachelbel married Barbara Gabler. It was a short-lived marriage. After two years, Barbara and their baby died during a plague. A year later, he remarried, to Judith Drommer. Their son, Wilhelm Hieronymus, became a composer.
Later Musical Career
In 1690 he accepted an appointment as Württemberg court musician and organist in Stuttgart. However, with the French invasion in 1692, he fled back to his hometown Nuremberg. In 1695, he succeeded Georg Kaspar Wecker as organist at St. Sebald in Nuremberg, a position he held until his death in March 1706.
Pachelbel's output include a great many organ works, chamber music, arias, motets, sacred concertos, music for vespers, and masses. He was a gifted composer of vocal music. His motets, sacred concertos, and Magnificat settings are great examples of church music.
Pachelbel's Major Works:
- Six Suites, for two violins, 1691
- Chorale Preludes, for organ, 1693
- Magnificat Fugues, for organ, 1695
- Hexachordum Apollinis, six arias with variations for organ or harpsichord, 1699
- Canon in D major, for 3 violins, harpsichord and double bass, dates not known
- Sacred motet, Jauchzet dem Herrn ('Praise the Lord'), dates not known
- Six Fantasias in C, for organ, dates not known
Sources
Dictionary of Composers and their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)
Oxford Dictionary of Music, edited by Michael Kennedy, OUP (1994)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)
