Johann Pachelbel was born on 1 September 1653 in Nuremberg. Not much is known about his childhood and education, except that he studied music under the composer Heinrich Schwemmer, Kapellmeister at St. Sebaldus School. In 1673 he enrolled at the University of Altdorf to study theology, but the following year accepted his first job, as organist of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in his hometown.
When Schwemmer died in 1692 Pachelbel’s reputation as a musician was firmly established and he took his former tutor’s place as Kapellmeister at St. Sebaldus, also being charged with the training of the choirboys from the school next door. Three years later he published the first of eight volumes of sacred choral works, Musikalische Sterbens-Gedancken, which were to be the only printed music of his lifetime. It was also in this year that Pachelbel married Barbara Gabler, daughter of the Nuremberg wine merchant Christoph Gabler.
In 1695, just months after becoming a father for the first time, Pachelbel was suddenly dismissed from St. Sebaldus and left Nuremberg. No information remains about the reasons for his abrupt dismissal, but it was a traumatic experience for Pachelbel, for he never settled in a permanent post for the rest of his career.
After several stops, Pachelbel’s life stabilised in 1699, when he obtained the prestigious post of organist and teacher at the Predigerkirche (Preachers’ Church) in Erfurt, where he was to stay for the next eleven years. There, he not only fulfilled the duties of his post, he also took an active part in organising and performing secular music.
In 1703 Pachelbel’s wife Barbara gave birth to the last and greatest of their seven children, Wilhelm Hieronymus, who followed in his father’s musical footsteps and became an eminent organist and composer. When the Duke of Saxe-Eisenach died in 1707 Pachelbel was requested to compose a memorial cantata for the occasion, which was first performed on August 15, 1707.
In 1704, Pachelbel’s wife suddenly died, leaving him with seven young children to care for. Pachelbel’s career reached its peak during the 1700s, however by 1705 his life had taken an unexpected and unhappy turn when his daughter Catharina Barbara gave birth to an illegitimate son. Catharina Barbara was forced to leave home and became a servant in the household of the Duke of Saxe-Eisenach. Despite this incident Pachelbel remained on good terms with the Duke, who granted him an annual pension which supplemented the organist’s income.
A few years later Pachelbel accepted a new position as organist at St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg. He had hardly entered upon his new duties, when he died of a stroke in March 1706, at the age of fifty-two, a few days before his first anniversary as organist at St. Michael’s Church.
Today Johann Pachelbel is chiefly known for his organ works, especially the chorale prelude on “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her” and the Chaconne in F minor, and for the Canon and Gigue in D major for three violins and continuo. He was also a distinguished composer of sacred and secular vocal works, including over 200 sacred concertos, numerous masses and motets.