Charles Theodore Pachelbel ( baptized Carl Theodorus, also spelled Karl Theodor, on November 24, 1690;Redway, "Charles Theodore Pachelbell, Musical Emigrant", p. 33 buried September 15, 1750) was a German composer,

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

and harpsichordist of the late Baroque era. He was the son of the more famous Johann Pachelbel, composer of the popular '' Canon in D.'' He was one of the first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an composers to take up residence in the American colonies, and was the most famous musical figure in early Charleston, South Carolina.

Life

Early years (1690–1732)

He was born in Stuttgart and baptized in the ''Evangelische Kirchengemeinde'' (Protestant parish) there on 24 November 1690, son of Johann Pachelbel and his second wife Judith Drommer. The family moved to

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...

in 1692, then to

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

in 1695. Nothing is known about Charles Theodore's life for 25 years after 1706, when his father died, except the fact that he probably lived in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

for some timeButler, Grove (his name appears in a 1732 list of subscribers to a volume of harpsichord music published in London).

The colonies (1733–50)

The circumstances of his emigration to the colonies are unknown. Pachelbel was living in Boston, Massachusetts by spring 1733, when he was asked to assist in the installation of the new organ of Trinity Church in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

. The instrument was donated to Trinity by George Berkeley, the famous philosopher. Pachelbel was subsequently hired as organist of the church and held the post until approximately mid-1735. In 1736 Pachelbel gave two public concerts in New York: on 21 January and on 9 March. Both took place in Robert Todd's house, an important tavern. Pachelbel played the harpsichord, accompanied by local musicians and singers. Pachelbel soon left for Charleston, South Carolina, where he spent the rest of his life. On 16 February 1737 he married Hanna Poitevin in St. Philip's Church in Charleston. The couple had at least one child, Charles, born on 10 September 1739. This could have been Pachelbel's second marriage, because traces of an older daughter have been found.Redway, "Charles Theodore Pachelbell, Musical Emigrant", p. 36 He actively participated in the musical life of the city: on 22 November 1737 he organized a concert of vocal and instrumental music, apparently the first public concert in the Charleston area; in February 1740 he succeeded John Salter as organist of St. Philip's Church; and in 1749, one year before he died, he opened a singing school. Pachelbel's death in 1750 was apparently caused by some sort of illness, referred to as a "lameness in the hands" in the documents. His wife outlived him by 19 years and died on 6 September 1769. There is no further record of Pachelbel's children.

Works

Only a handful of works by Charles Pachelbel survive; the most famous is an aria ''God of sleep, for whom I languish''. His ''

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for " y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical servic ...

'' for double choir is performed with some frequency. The young

Peter Pelham Peter Pelham (; – December 1751), an American portrait painter and engraver, born in England, a son of a man named "gentleman" in his will. His father, who died in Chichester, Sussex, in 1756, is revealed in letters to his son in America as ...

studied with him since Newport and followed him to Charleston; some of Pachelbel's compositions survive in Pelham's partbooks. Included in the list of Pachelbel's possessions compiled after his death are a harpsichord, a

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

and collections of sheet music, but none of these seem to have survived.

Notes

References and further reading

*Butler, H. Joseph: "Charles Theodore Pachelbel", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 2, 2005)
(subscription access)
*Cienniwa, Paul

(Accessed July 25, 2011) *Redway, Virginia Larkin: "Charles Theodore Pachelbell, Musical Emigrant", ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'', Vol. 5, No. 1. 1952. pp. 32–36 *Redway, Virginia Larkin: "A New York Concert in 1736", ''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 22, No. 2. 1936. pp. 170–177 *Welter, Kathryn Jane: ''Johann Pachelbel: Organist, Teacher, Composer. A Critical Reexamination of His Life, Works, and Historical Significance''. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998, dissertation. Available through UMI Dissertation Services, 2001. 384p *Williams, G.W.: "Early Organists at St Philip's, Charleston", ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'', liv (1953), 83–87

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pachelbel, Charles Theodore 1690 births 1750 deaths 18th-century American musicians 18th-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers German Baroque composers German emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies German male classical composers German classical composers Musicians from Charleston, South Carolina Musicians from Stuttgart 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians