PACHELBEL, JOHANN

päkhĕlˈbĕl, päkhˈəlbĕlˌ, 1653–1706, German organist and composer, b. Nuremberg. He held a number of posts as an organist in German churches, returning to his birthplace in 1695, where he became the organist at St. Sebald's Church. As a composer he is best known for his chorale preludes and variations, and is famous for the haunting and much-recorded Canon in D Major. Pachelbel is credited with significant influence on the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Two of Pachelbel's sons, Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel, c.1685–1764, b. Erfurt, and Carl Theodorus Pachelbel, 1690–1750, were also musicians and composers; they primarily followed their father's style. The younger son emigrated to the New World c.1730 and became a well-known musical figure in Rhode Island, New York, and South Carolina, and died in Charleston.

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