Pachelbel and his 'Canon'

Synopsis

On today’s date in 17th century Germany, a baby boy was christened who would grow up to be one of the leading composers and organists of his time. No, it wasn’t Johann Sebastian Bach — although the child we’re discussing here would become the teacher of the teacher of J.S. Bach and did serve as godfather to one J.S. Bach’s older relations.

It was Johann Pachelbel who was baptized on today’s date in Nuremberg in 1653. He was a famous musician in his day, but after his death in 1706, Pachelbel would be pretty much forgotten until late in the 20th century, when an orchestral arrangement of a little chamber piece that he’d written — Pachelbel’s Canon would suddenly become an unexpected hit. In 1979, the American composer George Rochberg even included a set of variations on Pachelbel’s Canon as the third movement of his own String Quartet No. 6.

Like Bach, some of 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, where he died in 1750, the same year as J.S. Bach.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Rochberg (1918-2005): Variations on Pachelbel’s Canon, from String Quartet No. 6; Concord Quartet; New World 80551

On This Day

Births

• 1653 - Baptismal date of German composer and organist Johann Pachelbel, in Nuremberg

• 1854 - German composer Engelbert Humperdinck in Siegburg (near Bonn)

• 1886 - Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck, in Brunnen

• 1952 - Iranian-born American composer Reza Vali, in Ghazvin, Iran

Deaths

• 1912 - English composer of African descent, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 37, in Croydon

Premieres

• 1816 - Spohr: opera Faust (first version in German with spoken dialogue), in Prague at the Ständetheater

• 1934 - Janácek: opera Osud (Fate), over Brno radio. The first staged performance of this work took place 24 years later at the Brno National Theater on Oct. 25, 1958.

• 1963 - Britten: Cantata Misericordium, a Latin dramatization of the parable of the Good Samaritan, by the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet, in Geneva, Switzerland, at a concert in celebration of the Red Cross

• 2000 - Gubaidulina: St. John’s Passion, in Stuttgart (Germany), by the chorus and orchestra of the Kirov Opera Theater and the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, conducted by Valery Gergiev. This work was one of four passion settings commissioned by the International Bach Academy to honor the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in the year 2000 (see also: Aug. 28, Sept. 5, 8).

Others

• 1785 - Mozart dedicates the publication of his six new String Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465) to Haydn.