Pachelbel, Johann

Pachelbel, Johann (päkhĕl`bĕl, päkh`əlbĕl'), 1653–1706, German organist and composer, b. Nuremberg. He held a number of posts as an organist in German churches, returning to his birthplace in 1695, where he became the organist at St. Sebald's Church. As a composer he is best known for his chorale preludes and variations, and is famous for the haunting and much-recorded Canon in D Major. Pachelbel is credited with significant influence on the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Two of Pachelbel's sons,

Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel, c.1685–1764, b. Erfurt, and

Carl Theodorus Pachelbel, 1690–1750, were also musicians and composers; they primarily followed their father's style. The younger son emigrated to the New World c.1730 and became a well-known musical figure in Rhode Island, New York, and South Carolina, and died in Charleston.

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Pachelbel, Johann

(baptized Sept. 1, 1653, Nürnberg—died March 3, 1706, Nürnberg) German composer and organist. Conservative musically, he was friendly with Dietrich Buxtehude and was the teacher of Johann Christoph Bach, who later gave lessons to his younger brother Johann Sebastian Bach. Though he wrote a huge amount of music, of which his organ chorale variations and Magnificat settings are especially remarkable, he is principally known today for a single piece, the extremely popular Canon in D Major, which he may not have written.

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Pachelbel, Johann 

Baptized Sept. 1, 1653, in Nuremberg; died there Mar. 3, 1706. German composer and organist.

Pachelbel headed the Middle German school of organists and was one of the predecessors of J. S. Bach. He worked in Vienna, Eisenach, Erfurt, Stuttgart, Gotha, and Nuremberg. His composing was closely linked to his performing; of major importance were his works for organ and clavier. He also composed church cantatas and other works.

REFERENCE

Livanova, T. N. Istoriia zapadnoewopeiskoi muzyki do 1789 g. Moscow-Leningrad, 1940. Pages 310–11, 319–20.