Johann Pachelbel

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Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major



Composed by Johann Pachelbel
Canon and Gigue in D for 3 violins and continuo
Lucerne Festival of Strings/ Rudolf Baumgartner


Johann Pachelbel was a German composer and organist. He was born September 3, 1653 in Nuremburg and also died there on March 1, 1706. While alive he studied music under the likes of Heinrich Schwemmer, G. C. Wecker, and Kaspar Prentz. In 1673 Pachelbel went to Vienna and became the deputy organist at St. Stephen's Cathedral. In 1677 he became the organist in Thuringen at the Eisenrach court, where he served for just slightly over a year. Eventually he became the organist at the Protestant Predigerkirche at Erfurt, where he established his reputation not only as an organist, but also as a composer, and teacher. Erfurt was, of course, the ancestral home of the Bach family, and there he met Ambrosius' eldest son, Johann Christoph. Pachelbel undertook the musical education of the young man who, not many years later, would teach his brother Johann Sebastian all he knew. Pachelbel started a family in Erfurt. After the early death of his first wife and their child to the plague, he remarried and produced 7 children. His travels finally led him home where he was invited to succeed G. C. Wecker as the organist of St. Sebald, Nuremberg, after his former teacher's death in 1695. He obtained his release from Gotha that same year and remained at St. Sebald until his death at the premature age of 52 (Hoasm).

Pachelbel’s music is said to have pioneered symbolism by using certain scales and chords to represent particular moods. He is highly regarded for his use of chorale variation. But Pachelbel's importance is, in fact, perhaps greater as a composer for the organ. His chorale preludes, based on hymn tunes, strongly influenced J.S. Bach. He was also the author of a great many motets, arias and Masses, and 13 Magnificats which feature solo singers and a choir as well ...