Eberhard von Freising Page 1 of 1

Eberhard von Freising

(fl ?Germany, ?11th century). German ?theorist. In 1784 Martin Gerbert
published two very brief treatises under Eberhard’s name (GerbertS, ii, 279–82)
from one manuscript of the 12th or 13th century, now D-Mbs Clm 18914. The
first treatise is a group of calculations for organ pipe measurements. Apart from
the fact that nothing whatever is known about this author, caution is further
indicated by the presence of about half the text in the treatise of Aribo, where
part is simply designated an ‘antiqua fistularum mensura’, and part explicitly
attributed by Aribo to Wilhelm of Hirsau. It is of course possible that Wilhelm
borrowed from an earlier work by Eberhard, but it is just as possible that
Eberhard was connected only with the drawing which is labelled with his name
in the Munich manuscript. The second, much briefer work is a few sentences on
bellfounding and does not appear to be directly ascribed to Eberhard in any of
its four manuscript sources. Neither work is of independent interest, but both
are naturally essential for the history of medieval attempts to apply the simple
numerical proportions of harmonious strings to the less tractable organ pipes
and bells. Eberhard should perhaps not be counted as a musical theorist until
convincing evidence of his existence is produced.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
K.G. Fellerer: Beiträge zur Musikgeschichte Freisings (Freising, 1926)
C. Mahrenholz: Die Berechnung der Orgelpfeifenmensuren vom Mittelalter bis
zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Kassel, 1938; Eng. trans., 1975)
J. Smits van Waesberghe, ed.: Cymbala: Bells in the Middle Ages, MSD, i
(1951)
LAWRENCE GUSHEE

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