Paumann, Conrad

PAUMANN, CONRAD. - Composer and performer of organ music, b. ca. 1410 in Nuremberg, d. in Munich on 24 January 1473. Blind from birth, he was organist of St. Sebaldus 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 Nuerenberga anno 1452 (Wernigerode, Fürstlich Stolbergsche Bibliothek, ms. Zb 14) containing preludes and other pieces for organ by him and by other authors; printed 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 oldest examples of German organ literature and, together with the work of Ad. Ilberg von Stendal (1448), one of the cornerstones of the instrumental notation of that period. In it are found valuable indications for chromatic alterations, for ornament signs (mordent, etc.), for the metric values of the letters (alphabetic notation was reserved for the left hand, while figured notes were for the right hand), which constituted a vital part of German organ tablature. Sebastian Virdung (1511) and Martin Agricola (1529) consider P. the inventor of German lute tablature.