Johann Pachelbel was born in 1653 in Nuremberg into a middle-class family,
son of Johann (Hans) Pachelbel (born 1613 in Wunsiedel, Germany), a wine dealer,and
his second wife Anna (Anne) Maria Mair. The exact date of Johann's birth is
unknown, but since he was baptized on September 1, he may have been born in
late August.
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| St. Sebaldus Church. in Nurenberg. |
During his early youth, Pachelbel received musical training from Heinrich
Schwemmer, a musician and music teacher who later became the cantor of St.
Sebaldus Church (Sebalduskirche). Some sources indicate that Pachelbel
also studied with Georg Caspar Wecker, organist of the same church and an
important composer of the Nuremberg school, but this is now considered unlikely.
In any case, both Wecker and Schwemmer were trained by Johann Erasmus
Kindermann, one of the founders of the Nuremberg musical tradition, who had
been at one time a pupil of Johann Staden.
Johann Mattheson, whose Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte (Hamburg, 1740)
is one of the most important sources of information about Pachelbel's life,
mentions that the young Pachelbel demonstrated exceptional musical and academic
abilities. He received his primary education in St. Lorenz Hauptschule and the Auditorio
Aegediano in Nuremberg, then on 29 June 1669 he became a student at the University
of Altdorf, where he was also appointed organist of St. Lorenz church the same
year. Financial difficulties forced Pachelbel to leave the university after
less than a year. In order to complete his studies he became a scholarship
student, in 1670, at the Gymnasium Poeticum at Regensburg. The school
authorities were so impressed by Pachelbel's academic qualifications that he
was admitted above the school's normal quota.
Pachelbel was also permitted to study music outside the Gymnasium. His
teacher was Kaspar (Caspar) Prentz, once a student of Johann Kaspar
Kerll. Since the latter was greatly influenced by Italian composers such as Giacomo
Carissimi, it is likely through Prentz that Pachelbel started developing an
interest in contemporary Italian music, and Catholic church music in general.
Prentz left for Eichstätt in 1672. This period of
Pachelbel's life is the least documented one, so it is unknown whether he
stayed in Regensburg until 1673 or left the same year his teacher did; at any
rate, by 1673 Pachelbel was living in Vienna, where he became a deputy organist
at the famous Saint Stephen Cathedral (Stephansdom). At the time, Vienna
was the center of the vast Habsburg empire and had much cultural importance;
its tastes in music were predominantly Italian. Several renowned cosmopolitan
composers worked there, many of them contributing to the exchange of musical
traditions in Europe. In particular, Johann Jakob Froberger served as court
organist in Vienna until 1657 and was succeeded by Alessandro Poglietti. Georg Muffat lived in the city for some time, and, most
importantly, Johann Kaspar Kerll moved to Vienna in 1673. While there, he may
have known or even taught Pachelbel, whose music shows traces of Kerll's style.
Pachelbel spent five years in Vienna, absorbing the music of Catholic composers
from southern Germany and Italy. In some respects, Pachelbel is similar to Haydn,
who too served as a professional musician of the Stephansdom in his
youth and as such was exposed to music of the leading composers of the time.
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| Predigerkirche,where pachelbel wor for 12 years |
In 1677, Pachelbel moved to Eisenach, where he
found employment as court organist under Kapellmeister Daniel Eberlin (also a
native of Nuremberg), in the employ of Johann Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach.
He met members of the Bach family in Eisenach (which was the home city of J. S.
Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach), and became a close friend of Johann
Ambrosius and tutor to his children. However, Pachelbel spent only one year in
Eisenach. In 1678, Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Jena, Johann Georg's brother, died
and during the period of mourning court musicians were greatly curtailed. Pachelbel was left unemployed.
He requested a testimonial from Eberlin, who wrote one for him, describing
Pachelbel as a 'perfect and rare virtuoso' – einen perfekten und raren
Virtuosen. With this document, Pachelbel left Eisenach on May 18, 1678.
In June 1678, Pachelbel was employed as organist
of the Predigerkirche in Erfurt, succeeding Johann Effler (c. 1640–1711; Effler
later preceded Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar). The Bach family was very well
known in Erfurt (where virtually all organists would later be called "Bachs"),
so Pachelbel's friendship with them continued here. Pachelbel became godfather
to Johann Ambrosius' daughter, Johanna Juditha, taught Johann Christoph Bach
(1671–1721), Johann Sebastian's eldest brother, and lived in Johann Christian
Bach's (1640–1682) house. Pachelbel remained in Erfurt for 12 years and
established his reputation as one of the leading German organ composers of the
time during his stay. The chorale prelude became one of his most characteristic
products of the Erfurt period, since Pachelbel's contract specifically required
him to compose the preludes for church services. His duties also included organ
maintenance and, more importantly, composing a large-scale work every year to
demonstrate his progress as composer and organist, as every work of that kind
had to be better than the one composed the year before.
Johann Christian Bach (1640–1682), Pachelbel's
landlord in Erfurt, died in 1682. In June 1684, Pachelbel purchased the house
(called Zur silbernen Tasche, now Junkersand 1) from Johann Christian's
widow. In 1686, he was offered a position as
organist of the St. Trinitatis church (Trinitatiskirche) in Sondershausen.
Pachelbel initially accepted the invitation but, as a surviving autograph
letter indicates, had to reject the offer after a long series of negotiations:
it appears that he was required to consult with Erfurt's elders and church
authorities before considering any job offers. It seems that the situation had
been resolved quietly and without harm to Pachelbel's reputation; he was
offered a raise and stayed in the city for four more years.
Pachelbel married twice during his stay in
Erfurt. Barbara Gabler, daughter of the Stadt-Major of Erfurt, became his first
wife, on 25 October 1681. The marriage took place in the house of the bride's
father. Unfortunately, both Barbara and their only son died in October 1683
during a plague. Pachelbel's first published work, a set of chorale variations
called Musicalische Sterbens-Gedancken ("Musical Thoughts on
Death", Erfurt, 1683), was probably influenced by this event.
Ten months later, Pachelbel married Judith
Drommer (Trummert), daughter of a coppersmith, on 24 August 1684. They had five
sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel and Charles
Theodore Pachelbel, also became organ composers; the latter moved to the American
colonies in 1734. Another son, Johann Michael, became an instrument maker in
Nuremberg and traveled as far as London and Jamaica. One of the daughters, Amalia
Pachelbel, achieved recognition as a painter and engraver.
Although Pachelbel was an outstandingly
successful organist, composer, and teacher at Erfurt, he asked permission to
leave, apparently seeking a better appointment, and was formally released on 15
August 1690, bearing a testimonial praising his diligence and fidelity.
He was employed in less than a fortnight: from 1
September 1690, he was a musician-organist in the Württemberg court at Stuttgart
under the patronage of Duchess Magdalena Sibylla. That job was better, but,
unfortunately, he lived there only two years before fleeing the French attacks
of the War of the Grand Alliance. His next job was in Gotha as the town organist,
a post he occupied for two years, starting on 8 November 1692; there he
published his first, and only, liturgical music collection: Acht Chorale zum
Praeambulieren in 1693 (Erster Theil etlicher Choräle).
When former pupil Johann Christoph Bach married
in October 1694, the Bach family celebrated the marriage on 23 October 1694 in Ohrdruf,
and invited him and other composers to provide the music; he probably
attended – if so, it was the only time J.S. Bach, then nine years old, met
Johann Pachelbel.
In his three years in Gotha, he was twice offered
positions, in Stuttgart and at Oxford University; he declined both. Meanwhile,
in Nuremberg, when the St. Sebaldus Church organist Georg Caspar Wecker (and his
possible former teacher) died on 20 April 1695, the city authorities were so
anxious to appoint Pachelbel (then a famous Nuremberger) to the position that
they officially invited him to assume it without holding the usual job
examination or inviting applications from prominent organists from lesser
churches. He accepted, was released from Gotha in 1695, and arrived in
Nuremberg in summer, with the city council paying his per diem expenses.
Pachelbel lived the rest of his life in
Nuremberg, during which he published the chamber music collection Musicalische
Ergötzung, and, most importantly, the Hexachordum Apollinis
(Nuremberg, 1699), a set of six keyboard arias with variations. Though most
influenced by Italian and southern German composers, he knew the northern
German school, because he dedicated the Hexachordum Apollinis to Dieterich
Buxtehude. Also composed in the final years were Italian-influenced concertato Vespers
and a set of more than ninety Magnificat fugues.
Johann Pachelbel died at the age of 52, in early
March 1706, and was buried on 9 March; Mattheson cites either 3 March or 7
March 1706 as the death date, yet it is unlikely that the corpse was allowed to
linger unburied as long as six days. Contemporary custom was to bury the dead
on the third or fourth post-mortem day; so, either 6 or 7 March 1706 is a
likelier death date. He is buried in the St. Rochus Cemetery.
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