Hexachordum Apollinis

Hexachordum Apollinis (PWC 193–8, T. 211–6, PC 131–6, POP 1–6) is a collection of keyboard music by Johann Pachelbel, published in 1699.

The collection includes a preface in which Pachelbel dedicates the work to Dieterich Buxtehude and Ferdinand Tobias Richter and briefly discusses the nature of music.

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.

"[1] 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.

[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.

Scholar Willi Apel once suggested that the aria's melody may have been a traditional tune associated somehow with the church, and not an original Pachelbel composition.

Facsimile of the frontispiece of Hexachordum Apollinis .
The fifth and the sixth variations from Aria Prima , as they appeared in the first edition. Note that both variations display characteristic style brisé figurations.
Example 1 . Samples of non-keyboard styles in Hexachordum Apollinis : Aria Prima, Variation 5, bar 1; Aria Sexta (Sebaldina), Variation 5, bar 1 (imitates the strumming of a plucked string instrument); and Aria Sexta (Sebaldina), Variation 7, bar 5.