Pachelbel and his Canon

Synopsis

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

In his day, Pachelbel was regarded as an innovative composer of Protestant church music and works for harpsichord and organ. He 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 J.S. Bach’s older relatives.

Pachelbel would be pretty much forgotten by most music lovers until late in the 20th century, when an orchestral arrangement of a little canon he had written would suddenly become one of the best-known classical themes of our time. In 1979, American composer George Rochberg even included variations on Pachelbel’s famous 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, and died there in 1750, the same year as J.S. Bach.

Music Played in Today's Program

George Rochberg (1918-2005): 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: March 21)

• 1910 - American composer Samuel Barber, in West Chester, Pennsylvania

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

Deaths

• 1706 - Burial date of German composer Johann Pachelbel, 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, California

• 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.