Johann Pachelbel's Presto

[voet]

I am looking for a short piece titled Presto and attributed to Pachelbel. I once had it in a small volume of some of his miscellaneous works. I believe it was a German edition, although I am not positive. I also suspect that it may be a harpsichord piece. It had block chords in the right hand and alternating octaves in the left.

I have done internet searches and looked at IMSLP to no avail. If anyone can help me locate it, I would appreciate it.

[regeron]

Can you provide any other information? Key? Time signature? In the volume you had, how many pages? Was the book format portrait or landscape? These might help direct people in their searches through their own personal music libraries.

[voet]

It was a short piece, one or two pages at the most, which leads me to believe that it may be a movement from a larger work. As I recall it was in G major, but I also seem to recall that the F sharp did not appear in the key signature, so perhaps it was from a larger work in, say the key of C major. The book it came from was in portrait format. I hope this helps.

[andijah]

We have several landscape format Pachelbel collections for organ in our church. But as far as I remember, all pieces in those books are for organ (including pedals). But I'll have another look.

[regeron]

voet, I'm going to pry for more information. Do you recall the note values for the solid chords? half notes? quarters? combinations?
Did you get a sense that there was a melody in either the chords or the moving left hand part? Also, could you describe the left-hand octaves in a bit more detail? Was it like a scale going up and down in broken octaves, or something else?

Though I don't have scores, my reading says there were harpsichord suites - collections of standard dances. Do you remember the time signature? I think it unlikely that Pachelbel would have used the term "Presto" in his music. (This is probably an editorial comment.) More likely that he used the name of a dance, eg. Sarabande, or gave the title of a chorale, in which case your piece might be a manuals-only variation from a set of variations based on a hymn tune.

[voet]

If I recall correctly the right hand chords were:

dotted quarter note, eighth note: pattern repeated. RH g-b-d; g-b-d; g-c-e; g-c-e; g-b-d.......

The left hand was broken octaves:

eighth rest, eighth note , quarter note: pattern repeated. LH rest; tenor g; bass g; rest; tenor g; bass g; rest.......

The above pattern was used throughout in 4/4 time. I agree that it is probably a movement from a harpsichord suite, although I have not found it on IMSLP. I also agree that the editor probably named it presto. Sometimes suites were published without naming the individual movements because people at the time would have known what dances they were intended to accompany. If it is a dance movement, I would guess it might be an allemand.

I am familiar with many German chorales and I seriously doubt that it is based on one.