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PRAETORIUS, MICHAEL (1571_1621)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 246 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRAETORIUS, See also:MICHAEL (1571_1621) , See also:German musical historian, theorist and composer, was See also:born at Kreuzberg, in Thuringia, on the 15th of See also:February 1571. His See also:father's name was Michael Schultheis.' While he was still quite See also:young he visited the university of See also:Frankfort on the See also:Oder for three years. Here he studied See also:philosophy, and on the See also:death of his See also:brother, on whose support he relied, he was given a See also:post as organist in the See also:town. He acted as kapellmeister at See also:Luneburg See also:early in See also:life, was engaged first as organist and later as kapellmeister and secretary to the See also:duke of See also:Brunswick-See also:Wolfenbuttel, and was eventually rewarded for his See also:long services with the priory of Ringelheim, near See also:Goslar. He died at Wolfenbuttel on the 15th of February 1621. Of his very numerous compositions copies are now very scarce. The most important are : Polyhymnia (15 vols.), Musae Sioniae (16 vols.), and Musa See also:Aonia (9 vols.), all written partly to Latin and partly to German words. But more See also:precious than all these is the Syntagma musicum (3 vols. and a cahier of plates, 4to, See also:Wittenberg and Wolfenbuttel, 1615-162o). In the See also:original See also:prospectus of the See also:work four volumes were promised, but it is certain that no more than three were ever published. The See also:fourth See also:volume mentioned in See also:Forkel's See also:catalogue is clearly nothing but the cahier of plates attached to vol. ii. The See also:chief value of this very remarkable work lies in the See also:information it gives concerning the See also:condition of instrumental See also:music in the early years of the 17th See also:century. The plates include excellent representations of all the musical See also:instruments in use at the See also:time they were published, together with many forms even then treated only as See also:antique curiosities.

The work thus throws a See also:

light upon the earlier forms of instrumental music which to the historian is invaluable. In fact, without the information bequeathed to us by Praetorius it would be impossible to reconstruct in theory the See also:orchestra of the earlier See also:half of the 17th century, during which the See also:opera and the See also:oratorio both sprang into existence, or even to understand the descriptions See also:left us by other less careful writers.

End of Article: PRAETORIUS, MICHAEL (1571_1621)

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