 It was by means of these thorough-bass solo songs that he became popular.Albert set his own poetry and that of his friends to music and published them as scores in eight volumes, mainly, as from 1638, labelled "Arien oder Melodeyen," totaling 170 songs.He provided these volumes with prefaces, offering detailed instructions for performance (he demanded e.g., that one should not play continuo "like hacking a cabbage".