Pachelbel, J: Aria Secunda- Hexachordum Apollinis

Recording of Johann Pachelbel’s 2d variation (Aria Secunda) from his 1699 Hexachordum Apollinis on my Saxon clavichord. 

Playlist with all my Pachelbel recordings: http://bit.ly/Pachelbel_Keyboard

From Wikipedia, on the Heaxachordum:

“Hexachordum Apollinis (the title roughly translates to “Six Strings of Apollo”) was published in 1699 in Nuremberg by Johann Christoph Weigel, a publisher who had worked with Pachelbel before. The frontispiece, created by Cornelius Nicolaus Schurz, describes the collection as “six arias to be played on the organ, or the harpsichord, to whose simple melodies are added variations for the pleasure of Friends of the Muses.” The instruments mentioned are referenced on the frontispiece: two cherubs are pictured, one playing a pipe organ (possibly with a pedalboard), the other a single-manual harpsichord or clavichord.

Pachelbel wrote a short preface (dated November 20, 1699), in which he dedicated the collection to Dieterich Buxtehude and Ferdinand Tobias Richter and expresses a hope that his eldest son Wilhelm Hieronymus might study with one of them (it is unknown whether this hope was realized). (…)

Another topic discussed in the preface is the nature of music. Pachelbel writes that music is the finest of the arts, governing human emotions and desires, and expresses the “belief of many” that music comes from the “Dreymal-Heilig” sung by angels and from the movement of celestial bodies (a belief, Pachelbel points out, shared by Pythagoras and Plato). A separate page of the preface illuminates a cabalistic aspect of Hexachordum Apollinis: using an alphabet provided by Pachelbel’s lifelong friend Johann Beer, the letters of the inscription “JOHANNES PACHELBELIVS ORGANISTA NORIBERGHENSIVM” are translated into numbers with the total sum of 1699, the year of publication; further research has illustrated that a similar alphabet will produce a 3:1 ratio with “Johannes Pachelbelius Hexachordum” (303) and “Apollinis” (101). Other instances of numerological devices in Hexachodrum Apollinis may exist, but as of 2015 are yet to be researched.[5][6]

Of all published works by Pachelbel, Hexachordum Apollinis had the widest distribution and survives in more than 10 copies in various libraries in Berlin, London, The Hague, Rochester, and other cities.”