JohannChristoph Pachelbel was a German baroque composer and organist. He was anacclaimed composer and organist during his lifetime, and was also regarded asan outstanding teacher. Today Pachelbel is considered to be one of the mostimportant organ composers of the middle Baroque: he made significantcontributions to the development of chorale prelude and fugue and brought theSouthern German organ tradition to its peak. During hislifetime, Pachelbel was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than twohundred organ pieces, both liturgical and secular, and used most of the genresthat existed at the time. His other keyboard music includes harpsichord suitesand sets of variations. Pachelbel also composed numerous vocal works: arias,Magnificat settings, motets, sacred concertos, and chamber music. As acomposer, Pachelbel apparently was most interested in variation forms andassociated techniques. Variation techniques are in many of his organ worksespecially heard in the piece presented here, his Canon for which can be hearda full set of techniques. It is the only canon he wrote, yet is one of the mostpopular ones performed today. This quintetarrangement makes a great piece to play for church services, graduations andwedding processionals. It?s stately chordal progressions, chordal tonalitiesand variations have been especially popular with audiences around the world.

Maurer's 12 Kleine Stücke (12 Little Pieces) for five brass were published posthumously in 1881 and were written for two cornets in B?, two horns in E?, and one bass trombone. They are important works for brass in that they are some of the earliest pieces of brass chamber music existing; with Anton Simon?s Quartuor en forme de sonatine, Alexander Glazinov?s In modo religioso and Wilhelm Ramsøe?s five Quartets they remain some of the handful of original brass works from the nineteenth century. This edition is taken from the first version published by A. Büttner of St. Petersburg, Russia. In order to make it more accessible for a modern brass quintet the second horn part is transposed for trombone, and the lowest part may be performed on either tuba or bass trombone. I have tried to resolve the many contradictions in articulations found in the original score while keeping this edition as close to the original as possible. Many brass players may be unfamiliar with the complete version of this piece; I encourage them to perform the entire work as Maurer originally intended.