PAUMANN, CONRAD. – Composer and performer of organ music, b. ca. 1410 in Nuremberg, d. in Munich on 24 Jan. 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, Library of Prince Stolberg, ms. Zb 14), containing preludes and other pieces for organ by himself and other composers; it was printed in facsimile by K. Ameln in 1925; transcriptions were published 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 instrumental notation of that period. It contains valuable indications for chromatic alterations, for ornament signs (mordent, etc.), and for the metric values of letters (alphabetic notation was reserved for the left hand, while figured notes were intended for the right hand), which constituted a vital part of German organ tablature. Sebastiano Virdung (1511) and Martin Agricola (1529) regard P. as the inventor of German lute tablature.