Pachelbel Outside the Canon

Abstract

Pachelbel Outside the Canon Steven Zohn Johann Pachelbel. Arien. Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Hirschmann. (Sämtliche Vokalwerke, Bd. 11.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, c2008. [Contents, p. v; preface in Ger., Eng., p. vii–xvi; ill., facsims., p. xvii–xxxvi; score, p. 3–106; Krit. Bericht, p. 109–22; abbrevs., p. 123. ISMN M-006-55310-5; pub. no. BA 10561. €139.] Many readers of this journal may be surprised to learn that Pachelbel wrote enough vocal music to warrant a new eleven-volume critical edition. To be sure, the growing number of scholarly studies and recordings devoted to his instrumental ensemble music, arias, motets, sacred concertos, and liturgical works have not yet fundamentally altered the common impression of him as an organist who produced mainly keyboard works and, of course, the ubiquitous canon for three violins over a bass. Johann Pachelbel: Sämtliche Vokalwerke will include single volumes devoted to Mass settings, motets, and arias; two volumes with settings of the Vespers Ingressus (consisting of the versicle “Deus in adjutorium meum intende,” the response “Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina,” the “Gloria Patri,” and a concluding “Alleluia”); and three volumes apiece for Magnificat settings and sacred concertos. Thanks to this project, we should soon have a more balanced view of Pachelbel’s productive life. As Wolfgang Hirschmann points out in the German-English introduction to his excellent edition of the arias, these modest works have often been overlooked by scholars. The volume therefore aims to provide “a basis for determining the music-historical placement and assessment of Pachelbel’s arias” while also serving “the needs of performers, even though the topical nature of the texts will probably pose an obstacle to the widespread acceptance of these arias in today’s musical life” (p. xii). The arias are in fact delightful works that ought to attract the notice of performing ensembles with a special interest in German baroque music. Not only the edition, but two recent recordings (Johann Pachelbel: Arias & Duets, Hungaroton Classic HCD 31736 [1998]; and Johann Pachelbel: Arien & Concerti, Cavalli Records CCD 332 [2006]) should go a long way toward winning new friends for Pachelbel’s arias. The twenty-three strophic pieces presented here (including three in fragmentary state) appear to have been composed over a period of some two decades, beginning with five arias written for Erfurt political functions while Pachelbel was organist at the Predigerkirche. Hirschmann provides a vivid account of these “commendation” ceremonies honoring two new overlords of Mainz: Elector Carl Heinrich von Metternich-Winneberg (on 30 January 1679) and the Archbishop and Prince-Elector Anselm Franz Friedrich von Ingelheim (on the following 5 December). We learn from archival documents precisely where the aria So ist denn diβ der Tag figured in the frigid January ceremony, and are provided with a facsimile of a pen-and-ink drawing capturing its performance (or, at least, that of another vocal work written for the occasion). A second aria, So ist denn nun die Treu, was presented several days later as a “heart-upswelling memorial” upon the official delegation’s departure for Mainz. Three more arias are connected with the December ceremony, shown in an impressive engraving commemorating the event. One work was performed in the open air at the Erfurt Cathedral square (Wohl Erffurd! wohl, wohl dir, possibly represented [End Page 164] in the engraving by difficult-to-make-out trumpeters and drummers), and another served as a farewell ode (Nachdem die Treue Pflicht). We owe the survival of all five arias to the meticulous documentation of the commendation ceremonies in two sets of handwritten minute books, which contain a mixture of Pachelbel’s autograph manuscripts and scribal copies prepared under his supervision. Four of the five arias follow an instrumental ritornello with an “aria” section for one or two voices and a concluding five-part chorus. In So ist denn diβ der Tag, Wohl Erffurd! wohl, wohl dir, and Nachdem die Treue Pflicht, the ritornello is scored for the festive combination of four or five strings, four trumpets, timpani, and continuo. Choruses in the first two arias are brief, but that of the third is longer than the aria section; even greater emphasis is placed on the chorus in So...