Pachelbel - Piano Music

Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), born in Nuremberg, Germany, was not only the composer of the extremely popular Canon in D major, but one of the dominant figures of late 17th century keyboard music, who made especially important contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue. Pachelbel did not come from a wealthy family; he entered the university at Altdorf in 1669 but could not afford the tuition costs and had to leave after about a year. Nevertheless, his talent helped him to obtain first a scholarship to the Gymnasium Poeticum at Regensburg, and some years later an assistant organist post at St. Stephen´s Cathedral in Vienna. 1677 he became court organist in Eisenach, where he became a good friend of the Bach family. About a decade later, when Pachelbel had left Eisenach for Erfurt, he was charged with the musical education of Johann Christoph Bach, who was to take care of his younger brother Johann Sebastian after the death of their parents.
Pachelbel established a solid reputation at Erfurt. He married Barbara Gabler, but sadly lost both his wife and infant son in the plague after only two years. Later the composer was to have seven children with his second wife Judith Drommer. After brief periods in Stuttgart and Gotha, he returned to his birth town Nuremberg to become organist at St. Sebalduskirche in 1695, a post in which he stayed until his death. Pachelbel wrote more than two hundred pieces for the organ, both liturgical and secular, in most existing genres: chorales, fugues, chaconnes, variations, toccatas, fantasias, etc. About a hundred vocal works survive, many of them large-scale works. Some 20 harpsichord suites have been attributed to Pachelbel, but today most of these are considered spurious.

Pachelbel Piano Sheet Music

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Total pieces by Pachelbel: 2