Editing Johann Pachelbel (section)

===1690–1706: Final years (Stuttgart, Gotha, Nuremberg)===
[[File:Pachelbels autograph letter.jpg|thumb|left|Pachelbel's letter]]
Although Pachelbel was an outstandingly successful organist, composer, and teacher at Erfurt, he asked permission to leave, apparently seeking a better appointment, and was formally released on 15 August 1690, bearing a testimonial praising his diligence and fidelity.{{sfn|Buszin|1959}}

He was employed in less than a fortnight: from 1 September 1690, he was a musician-organist in the [[Württemberg]] court at [[Stuttgart]] under the patronage of Duchess [[Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt|Magdalena Sibylla]]. That job was better, but, unfortunately, he lived there only two years before fleeing the French attacks of the [[War of the Grand Alliance]]. His next job was in [[Gotha]] as the town organist, a post he occupied for two years, starting on 8 November 1692; there he published his first, and only, [[Liturgy|liturgical]] music collection: ''Acht Chorale zum Praeambulieren'' in 1693 (''Erster Theil etlicher Choräle'').

When former pupil Johann Christoph Bach married in October 1694, the Bach family celebrated the marriage on 23 October 1694 in [[Ohrdruf, Thuringia|Ohrdruf]], and invited him and other composers to provide the music; he probably attended—if so, it was the only time [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], then nine years old, met Johann Pachelbel.<ref>Walter Emery, Christoph Wolff. Article "Johann Sebastian Bach" in ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Music Online]]'', ed. L. Macy. (see under Bach.&nbsp;– III. Individual members&nbsp;– (7) Johann Sebastian Bach&nbsp;– 1. Childhood.)</ref>

In his three years in Gotha, he was twice offered positions, in Germany at Stuttgart and in England at [[Oxford University]]; he declined both. Meanwhile, in Nuremberg, when the St. Sebaldus Church organist [[Georg Caspar Wecker]] (and his possible former teacher) died on 20 April 1695, the city authorities were so anxious to appoint Pachelbel (then a famous Nuremberger) to the position that they officially invited him to assume it without holding the usual job examination or inviting applications from prominent organists from lesser churches. He accepted, was released from Gotha in 1695, and arrived in Nuremberg in summer, with the city council paying his per diem expenses.

[[File:Pachelbels tomb.jpg|thumb|Pachelbel's tomb at the [[St. Rochus Cemetery, Nuremberg|St. Rochus Cemetery]] in Nuremberg{{refn|The inscription reads: "{{lang|de|Zum Gedächtnis an den Nürnberger Musiker Johann Pachelbel, 1653–1706, einem Vorläufer Joh. Seb. Bachs, die dankbare Stadt Nürnberg.}}" [In memory of Nuremberg musician Johann Pachelbel, 1653–1706, a forerunner of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], the grateful city of Nuremberg.<nowiki>]</nowiki>|group=n}}]]

Pachelbel lived the rest of his life in Nuremberg, during which he published the [[chamber music]] collection ''[[Musicalische Ergötzung]]'', and, most importantly, the ''[[Hexachordum Apollinis]]'' (Nuremberg, 1699), a set of six keyboard arias with variations. Though most influenced by Italian and southern German composers, he knew the northern German school, because he dedicated the ''[[Hexachordum Apollinis]]'' to [[Dieterich Buxtehude]]. Also composed in the final years were Italian-influenced [[concertato]] [[Vespers]] and a set of more than ninety [[Magnificat]] [[fugue]]s.

Johann Pachelbel died at the age of 52, in early March 1706, and was buried on 9 March; Mattheson cites either 3 March or 7 March 1706 as the death date, yet it is unlikely that the corpse was allowed to linger unburied as long as six days. Contemporary custom was to bury the dead on the third or fourth post-mortem day; so, either 6 or 7 March 1706 is a likelier death date.{{sfn|Welter|1998|loc=14}} He is buried in the [[St. Rochus Cemetery, Nuremberg|St. Rochus Cemetery]], a Protestant cemetery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://st-johannisfriedhof-nuernberg.de/beruehmte-verstorbene-rochus/|title=Berühmte Verstorbene &#8211; Evang.-Luth. Friedhofsverband Nürnberg |access-date=2024-09-03}}</ref>