Pantaleon Hebenstreit

[1] Today his notability rests primarily on the pantalon, a keyboard instrument which he invented[2] and which subsequently came to be seen by some as a precursor of the modern pianoforte.

In 1697 he was obliged to leave Leipzig in order to escape his creditors, and took a position as a private tutor in Merseburg, which gave him the opportunity to develop his instrument: shortly afterwards he was invited to demonstrate it to the court in Dresden.

[1] Johann Kuhnau, the man who preceded J. S. Bach as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, is on record with the view that Pantaleon Hebenstreit was well worth his salary, however.

[9][10] Hebenstreit's duties in charge of court music included playing the organ in the Chapel Royal, but in 1733, now in his late 60s and with his eyesight beginning to fail, he passed responsibility for this aspect of his work over to his star pupil Johann Christoph Richter [de].

Although, three centuries later, the Pantalon which he invented is largely forgotten, it would be wrong to think that Hebenstreit's reputation, which extended far beyond the confines of the Holy Roman Empire, died with him.

In 1772 the English musicologist Charles Burney spotted the "famous Pantalon" in the house of Christian Sigmund Binder, who had succeeded Richter as head of court music.

In May 1772, a Mr Noel and his father performed daily concerts on a Pantaleon at the York House in Bath, Somerset.