This passage from the Annales Regni Francorum documents one of the earliest references to the organ in the Frankish world. The instrument appears as a gift sent by Emperor Constantine to King Pippin in 757.
757. Emperor Constantine sent King Pippin many gifts, among which also an organ; they reached him at the villa of Compiègne, where he was then holding the general assembly of his people. There came also Tassilo, Duke of the Bavarians, with the leading men of his people and, according to Frankish custom, commended himself with his own hands into the king’s hands in a condition of vassalage, pledging fidelity both to King Pippin himself and to his sons Charles and Carloman, as a vassal ought to be, with right intention and firm devotion, towards his lords.
Thus the aforesaid Tassilo confirmed the oath upon the relics of the saints Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherius, as well as of Saint Germanus and Saint Martin, promising to keep it for all the days of his life, as he had sworn by the sacraments; in the same way his senior men, who were with him, also confirmed it, as has been said, at the above-named places and at many others.
