Arnolt Schlick

Arnolt Schlick ( Arnold, * probably in Heidelberg before 1460, † after 1521 probably in Heidelberg ) was an organist, composer and organ expert. He wrote the first treatise on the construction, tuning and playing of organs. Schlick was blind, but probably not from birth.

Life

The first evidence of Schlick's life is a marriage certificate, drawn up probably 1482nd In 1486 he played at the coronation of Emperor Maximilian I in Frankfurt, was often found at various courts of Europe, and possibly I. 1520 also involved in the coronation of Charles as an organist, with his description of the event ambiguity leaves open. Since at least 1509, he was employed as an organist for life on the Palatine court in Heidelberg. As evidence of the importance of his organistic activities like the statement of his son Arnolt Schlick Younger serve that he had " vil iar before keysern vnnd kings chur prince prince spiritual VND worldly also other men " played (Preface of the tablature ).

Schlick was a sought-after organ expert and took among other organs in the Speyer Cathedral, in the Strasbourg Cathedral and the Collegiate Church of Neustadt on the Wine Route ( 1516) from.

To Schlick's acquaintances included Paul Hofhaimer and Sebastian Virdung.

1521 sent silt own compositions to Bernard of Cles, Prince-Bishop of Trent ( later Cardinal ), then we know nothing more about him.

Services

Schlick published in 1511 the mirror of organ builders and organists. In this work he treated in 59 pages aspects of organ building (eg scale length, pipe material, bellows, wind loading, site ) and the date and nature of the mood of organs, in which he thereby does not describe the then usual Mean Tone, but a practical non- floating mood suggests, similar to the moods Andreas Werckmeister's 170 years later. A copy of the long lost booklet was again found until 1860, a second in 1952.

The obtained compositions silt show musical and formal originality, so the report contains a ten -voiced organ piece and canons with the same onset of contrapuntal voices.

Works

• So keep a mirror of organ builders and organists, all pins and churches organs or rendered highly useful, Speyer 1511; Facsimile with transmission in modern German edited by Paul Smets, Mainz 1959; Text Getreuer impression ( with facsimil title page. ) By W. Bethge junior: Arnolt Schlick 's Spiegel of the organ builder and organist in 1511, in: Monatshefte for music history, 1869, pp. 77-114 Bavarian State Library digital
• Tablature of several hymn VND lidlein vff are the organs vn, Mainz 1512
• 8 verses about Gaude dei genitrix, 1 Bicinium Ascendo ad Patrem meum and a ten -voiced Ascendo ad Patrem meum, Trento, Archivio di Stato, Sezione tedesca # 105; Modern edition in Hommage à l' Empereur Charles -Quint, edited by MS Kastner, Barcelona 1954