Pantaleon Hebenstreit

Pantaleon Hebenstreit (27 November 1668 – 15 November 1750) was a German dance teacher, musician and composer.

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

Life Hebenstreit was born in Eisleben, a short distance west of Leipzig, in 1668. His father, described in one source as a "Thürmer" (look-out man), died in 1678. On 29 January 1691 Hebenstreit entered the University of Wittenberg. By 1697 he was employed in Leipzig as a violinist, keyboard musician and dancing master (i.e. teacher). In 1705 he travelled with his giant dulcimer to France. According to Johann Mattheson writing in his Critica musica, quoting a French source, it was during this visit that the French king Louis XIV was so impressed both with the instrument and with Hebenstreit's mastery of it that he rechristened it "Le Pantalon": the name stuck. Telemann himself left the Eisenach court in 1712.

On 11 May 1714 Hebenstreit accepted an invitation to take a position at the Electoral Court in Dresden, the principal court of Saxony. His annual remuneration was 1200 Thalers, described in sources as "unusually high"

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 . Hebenstreit's most notable pupils were the two Viennese Pantaleonists and .

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