Editing Conrad Paumann (section)

==Music and influence==
Paumann, being blind, never wrote down his music, and may have been an [[improvisation|improvisor]] above all. He has been credited with inventing the system of [[tablature]] for the lute in Germany; while it cannot be proven, it seems reasonable both because of Paumann's influence, and because of the ease with which music can be dictated using tablature.

Most of his music is instrumental, and some of it considerably virtuosic. Only one vocal composition survives, a ''[[tenorlied]]'' ''Wiplich figur'' for three voices; stylistically it is so close to the contemporary [[Dutch School (music)|Franco-Flemish]] idiom that it follows that Paumann knew the music of the Franco-Flemish composers. Most likely he encountered it on his travels, for instance when he went to Milan.

His ''Fundamentum organisandi'' of 1452, an instruction manual for improvisation, was combined with the [[Lochamer-Liederbuch]] of approximately the same date; the double source is housed in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.