Johann Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, organist, and teacher, who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the important composers of the middle Baroque era.

His music enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime; he had many pupils and his music became a model for the composers of south and central Germany. Today, he’s best known for the Canon in D, as well as the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in E minor for organ, and the Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of keyboard variations.

Pachelbel preferred a lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of others, although he experimented with different ensembles and instrumental combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which features rich instrumentation. He lived from 1653 to 1706.—Excerpted from Wkipedia

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