Pachelbel's Canon, to which the composer owes his fame down the centuries, is in
fact just one small piece in an immense body of work. Born in Nuremberg, where
he was baptized on September 1, 1653, Johann Pachelbel was the son of a wine
merchant. He began his musical studies in his native city with the composer
Heinrich Schwemmer, the future cantor of St. Sebaldus Church, and to a lesser
extent with the organist Georg Caspar Wecker, although this has not yet been
established. In any case, these two local eminences were taught by Johann
Erasmus Kindermann, one of the founders of t...