Pezel spent much of his life as a town bandsman, chiefly in Leipzig, where he was unable to realise further musical ambitions. He served initially as a violinist, but is remembered principally for the collections of music that he wrote for groups of wind instruments – cornetti and trombones – which have proved susceptible to arrangement for modern brass instruments.

Instrumental Music

Pezel’s principal wind pieces are contained in his Fünffstimmigte blasende Music (‘Five-Part Wind Music’), published in Frankfurt in 1685. This had been preceded by compositions for strings, wind and combined ensembles.