In assuming that the violin family of instruments is the staple of Western instrumental art music, Hautboisten, among the most important musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, constitute a neglected area of research. Hautboisten are known to have been among the major suppliers of musical entertainment in the German-speaking lands in the first half of the eighteenth century. The term Hautboistenbande has often been translated by contemporary scholars as ‘oboe band’. Indeed, these ensembles developed into wind bands known as Harmoniemusik; Hautboisten, however, were originally routinely trained to perform on multiple wind instruments as well as string instruments.

The Lilien Partbooks, which are part of the Sonsfeld Collection (the Sonsfeldsche Musikalien Sammlung; now held in the Bibliotheca Fürstenbergiana in Herdringen; D-HRD Fü 3741a), represent the most comprehensive primary source of music for such an ensemble. A detailed incipit catalogue of the compositions compiled in these partbooks draws together our current knowledge of the Lilien Partbooks and of eighteenth-century Prussian Hautboisten. The extensive catalogue of the works collated in the six partbooks constitutes a valuable aid for future research.