Music Treatises in the Conservatory Special Collections: Keyboard Treatises

Originally published in German as Musicale instrumentum reformatum, this Latin translation dates from 1610. In it Heiden describes his invention of the Geigenwerk, a bowed keyboard instrument.

This work describes the Sambuca lincea, an eight-keyboard harpsichord (also known as a Pentecontachordon), invented by Colonna that divided the octave into seventeen parts.

Originally printed in 1711, this work describes the newly invented fortepiano, illustrated with an engraving of the hammer mechanism that differentiated it from its predecessor, the harpsichord.

Includes a basic set of instruction manuals for voice, recorder [flute], flute [German flute], oboe, violin, and harpsichord.

A short, didactic method book for the harpsichord.

A reworking of Prelleur's Modern musick-master.

The work was first published in 1746, and Oberlin's copy is the third edition from 1756. It includes instructions for organ, harpsichord, bass-viol, violin, oboe, flute, and bassoon. It also includes instructions in music theory and a dictionary of important musical terms.

This work highlights the design, construction, tuning, and musical function of many now-obscure stringed keyboard instruments and thus illuminates unfamiliar aspects of baroque instrumentation.

This work, a lavishly-illustrated four-volume book on musical instrument construction, includes a highly detailed description of French classical organ construction and performance practice.

This treatise on keyboard performance was one of the most significant theoretical works of the 18th century. First published in 1753, Oberlin's copy dates from 1780. It is accompanied by a volume of eighteen practical music examples, titled Exempel nebst achtzehn probe-stucken in sechs sonaten.

Includes brief instructions for playing keyboard, organ, violoncello, guitar, flute, trumpet, and many other instruments.

While focusing on the harpsichord and organ, this work also includes brief instructions for flute, oboe, and bowed strings, including the first printed instructions for the modern tuning of the double bass.

Apparently modelled after C.P.E. Bach's Versuch, this treatise remained popular throughout the 19th century.

The most extensive of all piano methods written in the 19th century, this work went through ten publications between 1861 and 1922. Oberlin's is a copy of the second edition from 1876.