Johann Pachelbel

Author Code: GJPB

Pachelbel was educated in music by Heinrich Schwemmer and Georg Caspar Wecker, the Cantor and organist, respectively, of the Church of St. Sebald. He attended the University of Altdorf for less than a year before moving to Regensburg on a scholarship to the Gymnasium Poeticum. While there, he continued to study music under Kaspar Prentz. In 1673, he moved to Vienna and became the deputy-organist at St. Stephen Cathedral. In 1677, he moved to Eisenach and became a court organist. It was here he met and befriended the Bach family and tutored some of their children, including Johann Christoph, JS Bach's older brother. In 1678, he became the organist of Predigekirche in Erfurt. Over the next twelve years, Pachelbel became one of the leading composers for organ in Germany. In 1690, he received an appointment as musician and organist at the Wurttemburg court at Stuttgart, but invasion by the French forced him to flee to Gotha. There he became the town organist and remained until 1695, when the death of his former teacher, Wecker, left the position of organist at St. Sebald open. The Nuremburg authorities invited him to take the position and he remained in Nuremburg until his death. Although predominantly known as an organist and composer of organ music, Pachelbel also composed numerous choral preludes, works for the harpsichord and variations. Today, his Canon in D is one of the most popular classical pieces, although his masterpiece was undoubtedly the Hexachordum Apollonis.