Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel
Born	Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire
Baptised	11 September [O.S. 1 September] 1653
Died	before 9 March 1706 (aged 52); Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire
Works	List of compositions
Spouses	; Barbara Gabler (m. 1681; died 1683) ; Judith Drommer (m. 1684)
Children	8, including Wilhelm, Amalia and Charles
Signature

Johann Pachelbel^{[n 1]} (also Bachelbel; baptised 11 September [O.S. 1 September] 1653^{[n 2]} – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.^[1]

Pachelbel's music enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best known for the Canon in D; other well known works include the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations.^[2]

He was influenced by southern German composers, such as Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Caspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French composers, and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition. He preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude, although, like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features exceptionally rich instrumentation. Pachelbel explored many variation forms and associated techniques, which manifest themselves in various diverse pieces, from sacred concertos to harpsichord suites.

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^ Nolte 2001, "3. Liturgical organ music".
^ "Pachelbel, Johann" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Ed. Michael Kennedy, (Oxford University Press, 1996) Oxford Reference Online, (accessed 21 March 2007) [1] (subscription access)

[FOOTNOTENolte2001"3._Liturgical_organ_music"-3] Nolte 2001, "3. Liturgical organ music".

[4] "Pachelbel, Johann" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Ed. Michael Kennedy, (Oxford University Press, 1996) Oxford Reference Online, (accessed 21 March 2007) [1] (subscription access)

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