Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her

The Predigerkirche in Erfurt has an impressive history regarding their organists. Johann Pachelbel was one of these organists. Although the Schuke organ is from 1977, it's nice to know that Pachelbel's music sounded in the wonderful acoustics of the Predigerkirche. Pachelbel was employed here in 1678, succeeding Johann Effler. In this time Pachelbel was very close with the Bach family. Pachelbel remained in Erfurt for 12 years and established his reputation as one of the leading German organ composers of the time during his stay. The chorale prelude became one of his most characteristic products of the Erfurt period, since Pachelbel's contract specifically required him to compose the preludes for church services.

This chorale prelude on 'Vom Himmel hoch' is a perfect example of it. The nice thing is that it sounds convincing en very different registrations. I mostly play it with some flutes, but in this case I used the beautiful Dulzian 8' of the pedal as c.f.