PAUMANN, Conrad. - Composer and performer of organ music, born c. 1410 in Nuremberg, died in Munich on 24 January 1473. Blind from birth, he was organist at St Sebald’s in Nuremberg around 1446; in 1467 he settled in Munich as organist to Duke Albrecht III. He was also a skilled player of the lute, flute and other instruments.
His principal work is the treatise Fundamentum organisandi magistri Conradi Paumanni Ceci de Nuerenberg anno 1452 (Wernigerode, Fürstl. Stolberg Library, ms. Zb 14), containing preludes and other pieces for organ by himself and others; published in facsimile by K. Ameln in 1925; transcriptions appeared in 1867, edited by F. W. Arnold and H. Bellermann, and in 1926 edited by Ameln and Escher-Lott. The treatise is among the earliest examples of German organ literature and, together with the work of Ad. Ibelorg von Stendal (1448), one of the cornerstones of instrumental notation of that period. It offers valuable indications on chromatic alterations, embellishment signs (such as the mordent), and the metric values of letters (alphabetic notation being reserved for the left hand while figured notes were for the right), which formed a vital part of the German organ tablature. Sebastian Virdung (1511) and Martin Agricola (1529) regard P. as the inventor of the German lute tablature.