Christ lay in grim death's prison [Bar:BA2875]

Pachelbel's choral works excel in the magnificence and festive splendour of their tonal effect, but at no point do they depart from an easy singable style. Simplicity of harmonic texture and voice leading is a characteristic of Pachelbel's art generally, but it asserts itself especially in these vocal compositions. They are in the best sense of the word "Gebrauchmusik", that is functional music for the church service on Sundays and feast days, for these choral works are always closely associated with the seasonal liturgical themes by means of themnatic employment of the appropriate chorale cantus firmi.