Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/261

 music 249 lengthiness, nor poor from brevity ; wherever his mind and hand could reach he moves on with free elastic gait. His most brilliant execution never interferes with the majestic stateliness of his modulations ; he is never content with producing something merely grand and solemn : it must always be also blooming and delightful. Not only has he not been surpassed, but he never has been equalled.' Many excellent organists went out from his school and exercised their art in Vienna, Passau, Constance, Bern, Spires, and at the Court of Saxony. In 1512 Arnold Schlick, organist at the Palatine Court of Heidelberg, published the ' Spiegel der Orgelmacher' (The Mirror of the Organ-makers), and ' Die Orgel Tabulatur ' (The Organ Keyboard), works which give us much information as to organ- building, and also throw light on the musical science of the day, particularly as regards choral singing and organ ac- companiment. In the practical application of acoustics Schlick was far in advance of the theorists of his own and the following century. He was also a good lute- player, and published fourteen pieces for that instru- ment. The art of lute-playing, like the finer organ-playing, owes its origin to Nuremberg ; the lutes made there by Conrad Gerla about 1460 were sought after from far and near. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ordered three of them for his Court lutists. Conrad's descend- ants, the two Hans Gerla, were also good lute-makers, as well as good players on that instrument and on the violin. No lute-player, however, came near to the blind Conrad Baumann, who was himself ' the finest of all musical instruments and the master musician.' Baumann is also the inventor of lute