Pachelbel and his Canon

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1706, the German composer and organist Johann Pachelbel was buried in Nuremberg, the town where he was born some 53 years earlier.

In his day, Pachelbel was regarded as something of a progressive—an innovative composer of Protestant church music and works for harpsichord and organ. Pachelbel was acquainted with the Bach family, and was, in fact, the teacher of the teacher of J.S. Bach, and served as godfather to one of J.S. Bach’s older relations.

As famous as he was in his day, Pachelbel would be pretty much forgotten by most music lovers until late in the 20th century, when an orchestral arrangement of a little chamber piece that he had written would suddenly become one of the best-known, best-loved, and one of the most unavoidable classical themes of our time. In 1979, the American composer George Rochberg even included variations on Pachelbel’s famous Canon as the 3rd movement of his own String Quartet No. 6.

Like Bach, some of Johann Pachelbel’s children also became composers, and one of them, Karl Teodorus Pachelbel, emigrated from Germany to the British colonies of North America. As “Charles Theodore Pachelbel,” he became an important figure in the musical life of early 18th century Boston and Charleston, and died there in 1750, the same year as J.S. Bach.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Rochberg (b. 1918) Variations on the Pachelbel Canon Concord String Quartet RCA/BMG 60712

On This Day

Births

• 1737 - Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveczek, in Ober-Sarka; He was a friend and colleague of Mozart;

• 1839 - Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (Gregorian date: Mar. 21);

• 1910 - American composer Samuel Barber, in West Chester, Pa.;

• 1930 - American composer and jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, in Forth Worth, Texas;

Deaths

• 1706 - Burial date of German composer Johann Pachelbel, age c. 52, in Nuremberg;

Premieres

• 1740 - Handel: oratorio "L'Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato," and Organ Concerto in Bb, Op. 7, no. 1, in London (Julian date: Feb. 27);

• 1748 - Handel: oratorio "Joshua," in London at the Covent Garden Theater; The event possibly included the premiere of Handel's "Concerto a due cori" No. 1 as well (Gregorian date March 20);

• 1842 - Verdi: opera "Nabucco" (Nabucodonosor), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala;

• 1844 - Verdi: opera "Ernani," in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice;

• 1849 - Nicolai: opera "Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor" (after Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Windsor"), in Berlin at the Königliches Opernhaus;

• 1868 - Thomas: opera "Hamlet," (after Shakespeare's play "Hamlet") at the Paris Opéra;

• 1877 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic-fantasy "Fancesca da Rimini," in Moscow (Julian date: Feb. 25);

• 1924 - Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 5 (first version), in Paris, by the composer; A revised version of this sonata premiered in Alma-Ata (USSR) on February 5, 1954, by Anatoli Vedernikov;

• 1930 - Weill: opera "Die Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), in Leipzig at the Neues Theater;

• 1941 - Cowell: Symphony No. 2 ("Antropos"), in Brooklyn;

• 1951 - Honegger: Symphony No. 5 ("Di tre re"), by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

• 1980 - Earle Brown: "Caldar Piece," for percussionists and mobile, in Valencia, Calif.;

• 1982 - Berio: opera "La vera storia" (The True Story), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala;

Others

• 1831 - Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini makes his Parisian debut a the Opéra; Composers in the audience include Meyerbeer, Cherubini, Halvéy; and Franz Liszt (who transcribes Pagnini's showpiece "La Campanella" for piano); Also in attendance are the many famous novelists and poets, including George Sand, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Mussset and Heinrich Heine.