Praetorius, Michael

Composer

Praetorius – Lat form of Schulz/Schultze, b Kreuzburg-ander-Werra, Thuringia, Germany 1571, d Wolfenbuttel, Brunswick, Germany 1621. He attended the Latin Sch of Zerbst, Anhalt; then studied philosophy and theology at Univ of Frankfurt-on-Oder (1582–84); organist at the Marienkirche, 1587. He became Organist, Kapellmeister, then Secretary, to the Duke of Brunswick. After the Duke’s death he also served as organist and Kapellmeister at Dresden and elsewhere, and a nominally monastic prior in absentia. He was among the stricter Lutheran churchmen, and the address at his funeral asserted that he ‘often regretted not taking holy orders’. The most important of many musical works (including motets, madrigals, instrumental pieces and some based on Lutheran hymns) was the 15-vol Musae Sionae, compiled in his busiest period 1605–12, and a 4-part Syntagma Musicum, summarising the musical knowledge of that time. Some of the dates tentatively given in reference works are notoriously uncertain; cf Grove. No.83*, 956.