Pachelbel combined traits of the Catholic and Protestant schools of organ playing, assimilating polyphonic and homophonic elements in the development of the prelude form. His chorale preludes can be grouped into two types: chorale fugue and setting of the complete chorale as a cantus firmus. A third type uses a combination of these two, with the fugue leading into the full cantus firmus statement. In setting the chorale as a cantus firmus, Pachelbel is innovative, treating the cantus firmus imitatively while also presenting it in two-, three-, or fourfold augmentation. The cantus firmus is often paired with either a figurative accompaniment or with a purely harmonic accompaniment in which the voices move independently. In Pachelbel's chorale preludes he reveals a desire to achieve harmonic clarity and to showcase the melody.

Index Classifications: 1600s, 1700s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan