Ammerbach, Elias Nicolaus

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Ammerbach, Elias Nicolaus

Ammerbach, Elias Nicolaus, German organist; b. Naumburg, c. 1530; d. Leipzig (buried), Jan. 29, 1597. He attended the Univ. of Leipzig in 1548–49. From 1561 to 1595 he was organist of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. He brought out the first printed German organ tablature in his Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur (Leipzig, 1571; 2nd ed., 1583; ed. by C. Jacobs, 1985), in which he introduced a new German notation in which pitches were expressed by letters with rhythm indications above. The vol. contains his arrangements of dances and vocal pieces for organ or other keyboard instrument. He also publ. another vol. of arrangements in his Ein new kvnstlich Tabulaturbuch (Leipzig, 1575).

Bibliography

B. Freudenberger, Studien zu den Orgeltabulaturen 1571 und 1583 des Leipziger Thomasorganisten E.N. A.: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Intavolierunstechnik im ausgehenden 16. Jahrhundert (diss., Univ. of Kiel, 1990).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire