Gdansk Tablature (1591) - No 8 - Phantasia quinti toni

Phantasia quinti toni from the Gdansk Tablature.

The Gdansk Tablature (Danziger Tabulatur) is a collection of 40 music pieces dated 1591, although the date more likely refers to the year in which the collection was bound and the musical pieces were probably composed over several preceding and succeeding years.

The collection consist of 17 fantasias followed by 23 intabulations of various songs and other music for organ or other solo keyboard instrument.

Further to these 40 music pieces the collection contains various city council and parochial council records and plenty blank pages and it's author remains unknown. The fact that all music pieces appear to be in the same hand writing and the presence of council documents suggests that may be council clerk with particular affinity for the arts was the creator and keeper of this book.

The use and purpose of the music remains unknown but various researchers into the traditions and customs of church music in Gdansk suggest the pieces would most likely have been composed for use in church services.

The 17 fantasias may have been played for the start or end of a service.

The composer of fantasias is not known but researchers suggest they (and possibly the intabulations as well) could have been written by a man called Cajus Schmiedtlein (or Schmedtke). Schmiedtlein arrived in Gdansk in 1585 from Hamburg for the contest of appointing an organist for the newly built organ at St. Mary's, the main church in Gdansk. The church council seemed so impressed with his performance that he was given the advertised post for life, which he held till his death in 1611.