Extract

Guillermo Pérez is a noted specialist in 14th- and 15th-century keyboard repertories and, together with his group Tasto Solo, has brought out a disc of music from the tablatures in the Buxheim Organ Book and the Lochamer Liederbuch, the principal sources for the music of Contad Paumann (c.1410–73) and his anonymous contemporaries, Meyster ob allen Meystern: Conrad Paumann and the 15th century German keyboard school (Passacaille 950, rec 2008, 57′). The group has selected a representative sample of 18 pieces from a repertory of 300, favouring those that were particularly popular in their day, or well-known today—such as Mit ganczem willen wünsch ich dir—and which form the basis of performances that incorporate extemporisation and an improvisatory aesthetic. The make-up of the ensemble is worth mentioning: organetto (Pérez), clavisimbalum (David Catalunya), organ (Andrés Alberto Gómez) and harp (Reinhild Waldek). It is inspired by Paumann’s gravestone in the Munich Frauenkirche, which appears to feature him playing the organetto, surrounded by various instruments (lute, recorder, harp and rebec). The stone also describes him as ‘the most ingenious master of all instruments’; the title of the disc alludes to the fact that Paumann was known as ‘the master of all masters’, an accolade that continued to be attributed to him into the 18th century.

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