Virdung, Sebastian

 

Priest and organist at Basel, who published a work in 1511 at Basel, t is the oldest book known describing the forerunners of modern musical instruments. He describes the keyboard, the organ and clavichord, and concludes  with the musical notation of those instruments and of the lute and flute. It is entitled Musica getutscht und ausgezogen durch ebastianum Virdung, Priester von Amberg, um alles Gesang aud den Noten in die Tabulaturen diser benannten dreye Instrumente der Orgeln, der Lauten und der Floten transferiren zu lernen. A facsimile of the work was printed in 1882 by Breitkopf & Hartel. Four  of Virdung's songs are printed in Peter Schoffer's Teutsche Lieder mit vier Stimmen, 1513.