JOHANN PACHELBEL · COMPLETE VOCAL WORKS

Johann Pachelbel
was born on 1 September 1653 in Nuremberg. After attending school and initial musical studies there, he entered the Gymnasium Poeticum in Regensburg in 1670. In 1673 he went to Vienna to continue his training as an organist. There, probably as a pupil of the court organist Johann Caspar Kerll, he finally obtained the post of a lay vicar with responsibility for playing the organ at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, despite his Protestant faith.
From Vienna, he was appointed court organist in Eisenach in 1677. However, he already changed jobs the following year, taking up a position in Erfurt, where he was organist at the Predigerkirche for twelve years. His many notable pupils included Johann Sebastian Bach’s older brother and later foster-father, Johann Christoph.


In 1690 Pachelbel was appointed court organist in Stuttgart, but gave up this position after two years because of the threatened French invasion. After an interlude as town organist in Gotha, Pachelbel took up an appointment as organist at St. Sebald in Nuremberg in 1695. Now he held the most sought-after position which a musician could obtain in the imperial city. He died, aged 52, on 3 March 1706.

Whilst the largest part of Pachelbel’s extensive organ compositions may have been written in Erfurt, most of his vocal works which number over 60, in particular the large-scale magnificats and vocal concerti, appear to have been written for Nuremberg. These compositions may be regarded as important documents in evaluating the state of southern and central German church music around 1700.


Complete Vocal Works
Die kritische Ausgabe
Autograph and Edition
The Editors