One of the many famous composers for the Baroque period was Johann Pachelbel, born in the year 1653 and died on the 3rd of March 1706 Nuremburg Germany. He started his schooling at St. Lorenz Hauptschule and went on to study music at the University of Altdorf and Regensburg where he travelled to other cities such as Vienna and Stuttgart and taught the organ. In 1695 he got the job as the organist
at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nuremburg where he stayed until the end of his days. In the early years of his life he taught Johann Christopher Bach and many young people music and he played for many institutes. He travelled around Europe teaching but also learning music and was very popular person. Johann Pachelbel developed his musical skills from his teacher Heinrich Schwemmer, his classes at university and some of his colleagues met through playing such as Kaspar Prentz. His music was inspired by Frohberger and Frescobaldi two Italian composers which he learnt of whilst in Vienna.
The style of music Pachelbel writes and plays is classical baroque, protestant church music and helped develop keyboard music. In his career he has worked with Heinrich Schwemmer, Kaspar Prentz, Johann Kaspar Kerll and Johann Christopher Bach. Some contemporises composers from his time were Böhm, Bruhns, Fischer, François Couperin and Englishman Purcell. In 1701 a major event that happened was the war of the Spanish succession that involved Spain, Germany and Holland, though this did not affect Johann Pachelbel’s works because he was nearly at the end of his life span and did not contribute in the war.
Pachelbel’s most famous work was called ‘canon in D major’ which was written in 1680 and is still commonly heard today at weddings; the bride walking down the aisle. Another popular one of his works is ‘Vater unser im Himmelreich’ translating to our father in heaven, the song is a prayer; originally written by Martin Luther in 1538 but performed by Pachelbel.