Conrad Paumann

(1410/15 - 1473)

German organist, blind from birth. In 1440 he became an organist in his native city, and in 1451 entered the service of the Dukes of Bavaria. As a performer on many instruments he won great renown, which became international with a visit to the Mantua court in 1470; both the Duke of Milan and the King of Aragon desired his services but he declined, fearing reprisals by competing Italian organists. His compositions include a few songs and organ pieces, and a treatise of 1452 (Fundamentum organisandi) copied into the last pages of the Locheimer Liederbuch. This elucidates the embellishment of chant in keyboard style, and contains sensitive arrangements of chants and secular melodies.



IIIB: From Oswald von Wolkenstein to the Locheimer Liederbuch