For What Purpose? Johann Pachelbel and Incidental Music Commissions: A Case Study of Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan

Johann Pachelbel's vocal works occupy a small space within current musicological studies, despite approximately 100 such compositions surviving in print and manuscript sources. Moreover, these vocal works and the environment that fostered said pieces remain under-researched, if not a mystery. This article addresses one such choral cantata, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan P. 487, and its possible compositional impetus via performance venues, such as funerals, church services and weddings, to better understand the importance of middle-class (Burgher) commissions for German composers during the early 18th century. As will be shown, this examination illustrates how patronage shaped the lives of various vocal composers within the Free Imperial City culture, but, more especially, within the life of Johann Pachelbel during his Nuremberg tenure as organist and church composer.