Pachelbel, Charles Theodore (actually, Carl Theodor)

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Pachelbel, Charles Theodore (actually, Carl Theodor)

Pachelbel, Charles Theodore (actually, Carl Theodor), German-American organist, harpsichordist, teacher, and composer, son of Johann Pachelbel and brother of Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel; b. Stuttgart (baptized), Nov. 24,1690; d. Charleston, S.C. (buried), Sept. 15,1750. He emigrated to Boston c. 1732; served as organist at Trinity Church in Newport, R.I. He then went to N.Y. and appeared in concerts as a harpsichordist (Jan. 21 and March 8,1736), and then was organist at St. Philip’s Church in Charleston (1737–50). He gave his first public concert in his home there (Nov. 22, 1737). In 1749 he founded his own singing school. His only extant work, a Magnificat for 8 Voices (modern ed., N.Y., 1937), was written before his emigration to the U.S.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire