David Kellner ja cembal d’amour’i taassünd

Abstract

This article examines the life and work of David Kellner (1670–1748) in connection with the cembal d’amour, a rare eighteenth-century keyboard instrument invented by Gottfried Silbermann. The study is based primarily on the writings of musicologist Kenneth Sparr, whose extensive research on Kellner provides the main scholarly foundation, while the author supplements it with new geographical and cultural perspectives. Born near Leipzig, Kellner studied in Tartu (Dorpat) and pursued parallel careers as jurist, poet, military officer, and musician before settling as an organist in Stockholm. His theoretical treatise Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß (1732) became an influential and widely disseminated basso continuo manual of the eighteenth century. Kellner’s only surviving musical collection, XVI. Auserlesene Lauten-Stücke (1747), reflects his connections to lute traditions and the repertory of Sylvius Leopold Weiss. The article also foregrounds Kellner’s stepdaughter, Regina Gertrud Schwartz (later König), recognized as Livonia’s first female poet and possibly Estonia’s first female composer, who commissioned Silbermann’s innovative cembal d’amour. Through biography, theory, composition, and instrument history, the study highlights under-explored dimensions of Kellner’s legacy and demonstrates the significance of reconstructing the cembal d’amour for both historical performance and musicological research.