Unknown Organ Tablature from the Early Seventeenth Century

Abstract

In the course of research on fragments from the National Museum Library, a large torso was discovered containing hitherto unknown organ tablatures from the early seventeenth century (shelf mark CZ-Pn 1 K 219). The author of the article reassemble the torso based on signatures and analyzed its content, which consists of intabulations of sacred compositions by leading Renaissance composers (e.g. Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Jakob Handl-Gallus) as well as some lesser-known composers. On the basis of analysis, she then focused her attention on Silesia and the German-speaking milieu of northern Bohemia and Moravia, compared the tablature with similar sources from Czech and foreign collections, and placed it in the context of musical practice in the milieu of Lutheranism.