Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra 'Het Consort'

Samples - Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
1 Canon in D major

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was born in Nuremberg and had lessons in organ, violin and composition when he was young. One of his teachers was Kerl, a student of Frescobaldi, who taught him the Italian playing style. At the age of 24, when he was an accomplished musician, he went to Eisenbach, where he met Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695). Ambrosius Bach, father of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as a violinist and the local town musician. The friendship among the two musicians even persisted when Pachelbel established himself in Erfurt as the organist of the Predigerkirche. It is known that he was present at Ambrosius' daughter Johanna Juditha's christening ceremony as her godfather and that Ambrosius' son Johann Christoph (1671-1721) had music lessons with him. Pachelbel left Erfurt and stayed some time in Stuttgart. After that, he worked as a town organist in Gotha from 1692 till 1695. In 1695, he went back to west Germany in order to hold the office of organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nuremberg. Johann Pachelbel's music can be distinguished from his contemporaries' compositions because of its pithy simplicity and the singing character of the seperate parts. Some other remarkable characteristics are the clear harmonics and the rhythmical variety. The famous Round in D major was originally written for three violins and basso continuo. The composition exists of 28 variations which are based on two ostinato bars in the bass. Contrary to the sound of string instruments in the original composition, this arrangement starts with staccato notes of the pluck bass and the guitars. Because of the clear sound of the mandolins and guitars played with a plectrum, the entries and parts of each instrument can be heard clearly and there is a transparent sound quality, even in the tremolo passage towards the end of the composition.

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