Aria Secunda - Hexachordum Apollinis

These variations by Pachelbel have been recorded on the beta version of the sample set of the fantastic Holy Trinity organ of Ottobeuren, sampled by OrganArt Media.

Hexachordum Apollinis is a collection of keyboard music by Johann Pachelbel, published in 1699. It consists of six arias with variations on the aria themes. It's considered as being one of the pinnacles of Pachelbel's oeuvre. A rough translation of the title is 'The six strings of Apollo', which refers to Apollo's lyre. Although the nature of these works were, according to Pachelbel's preface of this work, to have a friendly nature towards friends like Dietrich Buxtehude, they are all very fine pieces. The six themes themself are in itself already very beautiful, mostly lyrical in nature. But in the variations Pachelbel shows that he is one of the most talented masters of 'the art of variation' history has ever known.

This Aria Secunda sounds wonderful on this sample set with its many colours, perfect for this South German keyboard music.

I plan to record all six arias with variations. I'm not sure on which organs/sets yet, maybe some baroque Gottfried Silbermann organs.

The time stamps of the variations are on the timeline of the video.