Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel (

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

29 August 1686 – 1764) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

ist, the elder son of

Johann Pachelbel Johann Pachelbel (baptised – buried 9 March 1706; also Bachelbel) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and h ...

. He was born in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

and spent the first four years of his life there. The Pachelbel family moved to

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

in 1690, then, fleeing from the

War of the Grand Alliance The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

, 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 district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

in 1692, and finally 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. Wilhelm Hieronymus almost certainly received his first music education from his father. By age 14 he was proficient enough on the keyboard to receive special commendation from the town council of Nuremberg. After leaving Nuremberg, he worked as organist at

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...

and his native Erfurt's Predigerkirche, before returning and taking the position at St. Jakob in 1706, shortly before his father's death. That same year J.S. Richter succeeded Johann Pachelbel at the city's largest church, Sebalduskirche; Wilhelm Hieronymus took Richter's former position at St. Egidienkirche. He remained in Nuremberg for the rest of his life, working at St. Egidien until 1719, when Richter died and Wilhelm Hieronymus was chosen to succeed him at Sebalduskirche. Only seven pieces by Wilhelm Hieronymus survive, all of them for keyboard. While three show the influence of his father (the ''Toccata in G major'', the chorale partita on "

O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" ("O Lamb of God, innocent") is an early Lutheran hymn, with text and melody attributed to Nikolaus Decius. Originally intended as a German version of the Latin Agnus Dei, it was instead used as a Passion hymn. In both ...

", and the fugal prelude to ''Fantasia super Meine Seele, lass es gehen''), in the remaining works Pachelbel shows a preference for technique that is harmonically and contrapuntally simpler, influenced by the emerging Classical style. Two such pieces were published by Pachelbel himself.

List of works

* ''Prelude and Fugue in C major'' (published in Nuremberg, 1725) * ''Prelude, Fugue, and Fantasia in D major'' (Nuremberg, possibly 1725, published as ''Musicalisches Vergnügen'') * ''Toccata in G major'' * ''Fantasia in B-flat major'' * ''Fantasia super Meine Seele, lass es gehen'' * Chorale partita ''O Lamm Gottes unschuldig'' * '' Fugue in F major'' Maybe is BWV 923 a work of Pachelbel, some manuscripts give him as the composer (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001096)

References

* 1680s births 1764 deaths German Baroque composers German classical organists Organists and composers in the South German tradition German male organists Musicians from Erfurt Pupils of Johann Pachelbel 18th-century keyboardists 18th-century classical composers German classical composers German male classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians Male classical organists {{Germany-composer-stub

List of works

See also

References