Christ lag in Todesbanden

Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ lay in grim death's prison)
Easter Cantata

In recent years the demand for making available a larger number of choral works by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) has made itself felt morestrongly than ever before. Within the past few years the search for unpublished manuscripts of choral compositions written by Johann Pachelbel has been taken up again and not in vain. Approximately twenty instrumentallyaccompanied arias and thirty elaborate choral works intended for services of worship have recently been found. These date from the days when Pachelbel was an active church musician in Erfurt and Nuremberg and includecompositionsof various categories, e.g. motets, cantatas, magnificats, and masses.

The excellency of Pachelbel's choral works may be attributed in large part to the magnificence and splendour of their tonal character. Theyare unusually vocal, choral, and singable. In the very best sense of the term they are what the Germans call 'Gebrauchsmusik', that is to say, they are functional music written for specific use in the church, service. They arenot music written for its own sake.