“Richtig, gut, leicht und bequemer”: Reviving Literacy in the New German Keyboard Tablature and the Keyboard Partitura

This doctoral research project investigates the capacity of the contemporary keyboard player to internalize historical notation systems that predate the hegemony of modern staff notation. The period under examination is 1550–1650, and the focus is on the New German Keyboard Tablature (Neue Deutsche Orgeltabulatur, hereafter simply German Tablature) and the Keyboard Partitura (or Italian Keyboard Partitura or open score; hereafter simply Partitura). Within their respective chrono-geographical cultural contexts, both systems were central to a keyboardist’s expertise, and widely used media tailored to the polyphonically oriented musical practices of the time. German Tablature, consisting only of letters and lines, served both solo keyboard and ensemble music. Partitura was a four-staff keyboard notation that used seven distinct clefs.

Combining practice-based artistic conceptual learning and historical content analysis, the project seeks to restore these notations to their practical dimension through the Historically Informed Performance (HIP) framework. Both notations constitute an independent part of the research, each containing a carefully documented 12-month internalization period, a concert and a peer-reviewed article. An additional lecture recital provides deeper cultural context to the tablature part, and a Summary Chapter summarizes the project as a whole.

The overarching aim is to establish a performer-oriented perspective on historical keyboard notations and to challenge their prevailing status as a predominantly musicological concern. In recent decades, performing with facsimiles has become increasingly common—even normative in some contexts—but this progress has yet to reach historical keyboard notations. Cultivating notational polymathy may be the next leap in the evolution of HIP, complementing developments such as the revival of continuo playing, historical temperaments and period instruments. The results in this study may serve as a basis for future pedagogical applications.

Keywords: historical notation, historically informed performance, HIP, autoethnography, early music, renaissance, baroque, keyboard instruments

Jasper Koekoek is a doctoral researcher in the Arts Study Programme at the DocMus Doctoral School.