Sebastian Ochsenkun
German composer and luth player

Sebastian Ochsenkun, known also as Sebastian Ochsenkhun (born 6 February 1521 in Nuernberg; † 20 August 1574 in Heidelberg), was a German Lutenist and composer.
Life
Ochsenkun‘s father was a barber who also made cornets. He was a student of Hans Vogel.
He was lutenist at the court of Otto Henry in Pfalz-Neuburg before moving on practice at the court of Heidelberg when Otto Henry became Elector Palatine of Heidelberg. In 1558 Ochsenkun published, in a volume dedicated to Otto Henry, a collection of songs and motets titled Tabulaturbuch auff die Lauten that contained works from the musical collection of the court of Heidelberg. He was also entrusted with official functions in Heidelberg: as flour weigher he was responsible for the validation of all flour traded in Heidelberg.
His sons Friedrich and Christoph both studied at the Heidelberg University.
He is buried next to his wife, Sibylla Sebastiani Ochsenkuntz, who died September 1571.
Works
Tabulaturbuch auff die Lauten […]. Durch Sebastian Ochsenkhun […].
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q105867. VIAF identifies the subject as 37788814. The Library of Congress control number is nr89001149. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1521, 1574, 1558 and 1571.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sebastian Ochsenkun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.