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Recorded at St. Paul's Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1973.
The text “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” (What God ordains is always good) was written by the pietist German poet Samuel Rodigast in 1675. The tune appeared in 1679 in association with other texts, but Pachelbel associated it with Rodigast’s hymn in these variations, dated 1683. The text and tune were published together for the first time in Nuremberg in 1690, and by 1708 “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” had become one of the best known hymns of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Germany. Pachelbel’s fourth variation is particularly striking because of its gentle chromaticism. Perhaps he was picturing the fifth stanza of the hymn: “Whate’er my God ordains is right Though now this cup, in drinking, May bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it, all unshrinking. My God is true; each morn anew Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, And pain and sorrow shall depart.”
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