Hebenstreit, Pantaleon

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Hebenstreit, Pantaleon

Hebenstreit, Pantaleon, German musician; b. Eisleben, 1667; d. Dresden, Nov. 15, 1750. In his early years, he was engaged variously as a violinist and a dancing master in Leipzig, but fled from his creditors to Merseburg. There the idea of improving the dulcimer was suggested to him, and he invented the instrument with which he made long and brilliant concert tours, and which Louis XIV named the Pantaleon, after its originator’s Christian name. As a precursor of the piano, it has disappeared in the process of evolution. In 1706 Hebenstreit was appointed Kapellmeister and dancing master to the court at Eisenach, and in 1714, “pantaleon chamber musician” at the Dresden court.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire