Meet a Composer: Johann Pachelbel

Meet a Composer:  Johann Pachelbel

Years Lived: 1653 - 1706

Period of Composing: Middle Baroque

Country: Germany 

Johann Pachelbel was born 367 years ago, making him the earliest born of the composers we have covered so far in this blog! Since we don't know his actual birthday, we celebrate the day Pachelbel was baptized instead. He wrote music in the Baroque era alongside Johann Sebastian Bach (born 32 years later in 1685), who we also covered in this blog. Besides working as a composer, Pachelbel was also an organist and a teacher.

Pachelbel started studying music at a young age and had most of his musical training in churches. Later, as a teacher, Pachelbel tutored Johann Christoph Bach, who in turn tutored his younger brother J.S. Bach, so Pachelbel indirectly influenced J.S. Bach, one of the most famous composers of all time. 

Have you been to a wedding? If so, you likely have heard Pachelbel's most well-known work—his Canon in D. Extremely popular for weddings and other ceremonies, it has also been used in movies (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Ordinary People and others), television shows (Last Man Standing, The Simpsons, and others), commercials, and it has even had parodies made of it. It is most distinguished by the bass line that repeats over and over again. The cellist plays the same eight note phrase throughout the whole piece, while different variations of the melody are played above it by the other instruments.  Can you count how many times the bass line repeats in this YouTube video? What differences do you hear as the three violins play variations of the music above the repeating bass line played here by the organ, cello, and theorbo?

Did you know?

Pachelbel composed over 500 pieces of music. 

Much of Pachelbel's music has been lost because in his time music was printed using copper engraving, a very expensive process that he could not afford.  

 

The chord progression in Pachelbel's Canon in D has been used in many pop songs (including Basket Case by Green Day, and Memories by Maroon 5) and Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Canon is a combination of Canon in D with another tune played over it. This YouTube video is another example of contemporary songs being performed over Canon in D. The songs fit because they use the same bass line and chord progression.

Although Pachelbel's music was popular during his time, it was forgotten for many years when Baroque music went out of style. It regained popularity in the mid-19th century when there was renewed interest in music of the Baroque period.

Scroll down to the composer map from Classics for Kids, click on it and then click on Germany to see other German composers, then scroll down to read about Pachelbel.

Look for 10 words or word combinations in this Word Search about Johann Pachelbel.

Can Pachelbel's Canon in D be performed on a rubber chicken? Apparently it can!  Watch this YouTube video from TwoSet Violin for a very funny version of Pachelbel's famous music.