Background
He was born in Erfurt and spent the first four years of his life there. Wilhelm Hieronymus almost certainly received his first music education from his father.
He was born in Erfurt and spent the first four years of his life there. Wilhelm Hieronymus almost certainly received his first music education from his father.
The Pachelbel family moved to Stuttgart in 1690, then, fleeing from the War of the Grand Alliance, to Gotha in 1692, and finally to Nuremberg in 1695. By age 14 he was proficient enough on the keyboard to receive special commendation from the town council of Nuremberg. After leaving Nuremberg, he worked as organist at Fürth and his native Erfurt"s Predigerkirche, before returning and taking the position at Saint Jakob in 1706, shortly before his father"s death.
That same year J.S. Richter succeeded Johann Pachelbel at the city"s largest church, Sebalduskirche.
Wilhelm Hieronymus took Richter"s former position at Saint Egidienkirche. He remained in Nuremberg for the rest of his life, working at Saint Egidien until 1719, when Richter died and Wilhelm Hieronymus was chosen to succeed him at Sebalduskirche.
Only six pieces by Wilhelm Hieronymus survive, all of them for keyboard. While three show the influence of his father (the, the chorale partita on O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, and the fugal prelude to ), in the remaining works Pachelbel shows a preference for technique that is harmonically and contrapuntally simpler, influenced be the emerging Classical style.
Two such pieces were published by Pachelbel himself.