Schlick, Arnolt (before 1460-after 1521)

German organist, composer, and theorist. In 1511, he published his Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten, a treatise on organ building and playing. The Tabulaturen etlicher Lobgesang und Lidlein, published at Mainz in 1512, was the first printed book of keyboard music to appear in Germany and contained liturgical organ music, lute pieces, and songs with lute.

His early life was spent in Heidelberg, but he subsequently travelled widely: to Frankfurt in 1486, where he played the organ during the festivities for the coronation of Maximilian I; to Holland in 1490; to Strasbourg (many times); to Worms in 1495, where he met Sebastian Virdung; and subsequently to Speyer, Hagenau, and elsewhere. During these journeys he gained an enormous reputation for testing new organs. He also wrote music for the coronation of Charles V in Aachen in 1520. He was blind, probably from infancy.