The Thematic Catalogue of the Music Works of Johann Pachelbel (review)

Abstract

REFERENCE BOOKS The Thematic Catalogue of the Music Works of Johann Pachelbel. By Jean M. Perreault. Edited by Donna K. Fitch. Foreword by Christoph Wolff. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, [viii, 411p. ISBN 0-8108-4970-4. $80.] Illustrations, appendices, bibliography. The challenges confronting an author compiling a thematic catalog of any composer are daunting. To establish bibliographic control over any musical corpus, questions of authenticity and the location of both manuscripts and early printed editions must be explored. Such were the challenges facing Jean M. Perreault in compiling the first catalog of the instrumental and vocal works of Johann Pachelbel. Perreault has made a valuable contribution for anyone wishing to explore German instrumental or vocal music from the generation immediately preceding Johann Sebastian Bach. The present catalog is not perfect, but it is an important contribution. As Christoph Wolff points out in his brief Foreword, When it comes to prior to the generation of Bach and Handel, we are not blessed with serviceable catalogs that help us to gain an overview, let alone bibliographic control, of the output of quite a number of major musicians (p. [ix]). The present work was largely completed prior to the author's sudden death in 2001. Donna K. Fitch, Perreault's stepdaughter and a former colleague at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, did the final editing for publication. The finished catalog includes a total of 528 works (421 for keyboard instrument, 89 choral/vocal works, 16 chamber works, and 2 instructional works) arranged alphabetically by title and assigned a catalog number. The alphabetical order is word by word. Each entry includes the location of manuscripts identified by RISM sigla, library manuscript number, and folio or page number within the manuscript. All manuscripts are listed in a column on the left-hand side of the page. On the righthand side is a column listing published versions. Incipits are included for each identified work. For large-scale works, subordinate movements or sections are each given an incipit and a sub-number to identify the work and from which section the incipit is taken. For example, 416.2 identifies the fugue portion of the Prelude and Fugue in E minor given the catalog number 416. The incipits use as many musical staves as are needed to accurately portray the work. Continue figures are included if found in either a manuscript or an early printed edition. Variant incipits, in a smaller font, are included if the variant version is from a published source. The titles are based either on the underlying text for vocal works, chorale melody, or form titles based on the Library of Congress subject headings, qualified by medium of performance and key, or ecclesiastical mode. According to the introduction, the author had three goals in compiling the catalog: to determine the exact size of Pachelbel's compositional output or corpus; to determine the best verbal method (i.e., title) for identifying each work; and to settle problems of identifying works with similar titles or groups of works with titles derived from the same text. The catalog assigns numbers to any work published during the composer's lifetime, or that appears in a manuscript that can be accurately dated up to one hundred years after the composer's death and can be ascribed either without question or with partial agreement that is fully documented. Works that are attributed to Pachelbel in some sources, but broadly accepted as the work of another composer are included, but without either a work number or an incipit and with a note identifying the generally accepted composer. A work ascribed to Pachelbel that has been questioned but is generally accepted as a work by Pachelbel is given full documentation with the note Ascription Questioned. In addition to the main body of the catalog, the author has provided a number of chapters and appendices to clarify the work. …