Johann Pachelbel - Prelude and Fugue for organ P. 416 (audio + sheet music)

Johann Pachelbel is unfairly viewed as a one-work composer, that work being the popular, Canon in D major, for three violins and continuo. He was an important figure from the Baroque period who is now seen as central in the development of both keyboard music and Protestant church music. Some have summarized his primary contribution as the uniting of Catholic Gregorian chant elements with the Northern German organ style, a style that reflected the influence of the Protestant chorale. A Lutheran, he spent several years in Vienna, where he was exposed to music by Froberger and Frescobaldi, which influenced his work with the chorale-prelude. His music in this genre would, in turn, influence the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, among others. It should be noted that many of Pachelbel’s works are difficult to date, thus rendering judgments about his stylistic evolution questionable in many cases. Pachelbel was also a gifted organist and harpsichordist. Pachelbel was born in August of 1653 and bapti