Arnolt Schlick

Arnolt Schlick (c. 1460 – after 1521) was a German organist and composer whose work is central to understanding organ music of the sixteenth century. He is probably to be placed in Heidelberg, both as to birth and death, although the sources mark these with question marks. Other origins have been proposed, such as Bavaria, the Swabian area or southern Bohemia, but these are not considered justified. Pietzsch's linguistic analysis, based on his manner of expression, points to the Heidelberg area towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. His importance rests on two contributions: he was the author of the first printed book in German on the construction and playing of the organ, and of the first German tablatures for this instrument.

His career took him to perform at public events of the highest rank. In 1486 he played the organ at the election of Maximilian I as emperor, and a witness described the performance as very pleasant; a later document, written by his son, confirms that he was blind. Between 1490 and 1491 he travelled to the Low Countries, probably because of a plague epidemic in Heidelberg. In 1491 he went to Strasbourg for the inauguration of the cathedral organ, the work of Krebs, and in 1495 he was in Worms during the Diet, where he maintained a cordial relationship with Sebastian Virdung, who would later become his rival. For several years he acted as consultant and assessor of instruments in Hagenau, Speyer and Neustadt an der Haardt. In 1509 he obtained a lifelong post at the Palatine court and, in 1511, the privilege of reproducing his books for ten years. In 1516 he visited Torgau, where he met Hofhaimer. It is not known with certainty whether he attended the coronation of Charles V in Aachen in 1520. The last contemporary document that mentions him is an invoice of 1521.

His legacy is divided between theory and composition. The Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten, published in Speyer in 1511, deals in ten chapters with everything from the measurements of the pipes to the placement of the instrument. In the Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang, printed in Mainz in 1512, he included nine works for organ, twelve pieces for lute and three more for lute in another arrangement. Among them stands out a five-voice Salve regina, with long imitative sections that anticipate procedures of Sweelinck. His Ascendo ad Patrem meum, for ten voices and intended for organ, is a singular work within music predating the early sixteenth century. For this reason, his reputation as a composer, less well known than that as a theorist, forms an essential part of his contribution to the history of the Renaissance organ.