Pachelbel: Organ Works

Rubsam

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Cat No: 8554380

Release Date: 02 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943438022

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PACHELBEL

Description
Johann Pachelbel(1653-1706)Organ Works Vol. 1Johann Pachelbel is widely known for his Canon and Gigue forthree violins and basso continuo, a composition that has now undergonearrangement after arrangement. Organists, at least, remain familiar with thequantity of music he wrote for the instrument on which he was a distinguishedperformer. Born in 1653 in Nuremberg, he is the leading representative of theSouth German school of organ music in the generation before that of JohannSebastian Bach, a prolific composer of a body of work that is of significancein itself, apart from any influence it may have had on later musicians.Pachelbel benefited from a sound general education and when theinability of his father to support him compelled his withdrawal after one yearfrom study at the university in Altdorf, he was able to continue with ascholarship at the Regensburg Gymnasium Poeticum, taking extracurricular organlessons from a pupil of Johann Kaspar Kerll, the latter a pupil of Carissimiand perhaps of Frescobaldi in Italy. In 1673 Pachelbel became assistantorganist at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where Kerll now held the positionof principal organist. Whether Pachelbel was actually a student of Kerll ornot, he was clearly influenced by his association with a leading musicianfamiliar with the Italian style. Four years later he moved to Eisenach as courtorganist, leaving the following year, during a period of court mourning, andtaking up the position of organist at the Protestant Predigerkirche in Erfurt,under the strict professional rules of that establishment. The period of twelveyears spent at Erfurt brought association with the Bach family as godfather toJohann Sebastian's sister Johanna Juditha and as the teacher of his brotherJohann Christoph, to whose house in Ohrdruf Johann Sebastian moved after theearly death of his parents.In 1690 Pachelbel moved to Stuttgart as court organist, escaping, afterthe French invasion of 1692, to serve as town organist at Gotha. In 1695 thedeath of the existing incumbent allowed him to return to Nuremberg as organistat St Sebald, the principal church in the city. By this stage in his career heenjoyed a considerable reputation as a performer and composer and this new andfinal appointment was offered to him by invitation not through the usualcompetition. He retained the position until his death in 1706.Pachelbel's Praeludium in D minor starts with a theme inthe pedals, then imitated on the manuals, repeated in a related major key andfollowed by a passage of impressive chords and arpeggios. A passage largely insequence leads to a section of chords and a solemn conclusion. The first of the five works based on chorales here included uses Komm,Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist ('Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost'), MartinLuther's translation of the Venite, Creator Spiritus. In ErfurtPachelbel had been instructed to provide a carefully prepared prelude to thechorale to be sung by the congregation and thereafter to accompany each
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