The German early Baroque

and the Church Reform

In the precarious economic situation of Germany in the first half of the 17th century, as consequence of the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants, the existence of expensive musical genres such as the opera was unthinkable.

Thus, the early German Baroque would be deeply influenced by the Lutheran Reformist appeal, against the pressure of the Counter-Reformation coming from Rome. This reality led to the writing of several Lutheran cantatas by German compositors to be sung by the people during religious celebrations.

In the second half of the 17th century, with Germany reviving from post-war, the music scene changed and the compositors started writing secular music too, with special emphasis and interest on the art of fugue, fantasy toccatas and freestyle sonatas.

Johann Pachelbel (1653 to 1706) is one of the main compositors of German Baroque from the second half of the 17th century who greatly contributed to the development of the Coral Prelude and of the Fugue.