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Michael Praetorius
Biography
Michael Praetorius (probably 15 February 1571, Creuzburg, now Thuringia – 15 February 1621, Wolfenbüttel, Germany) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist.
Praetorius was born Michael Schultze, the youngest son of a Lutheran pastor, in Creuzburg, in present-day Thuringia. After attending school in Torgau and Zerbst, he studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Oder). He was fluent in a number of languages. After receiving his musical education, from 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he served at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He served in the duke's State Orchestra, first as organist and later (from 1604) as Kapellmeister.
His first compositions appeared around 1602/3. Their publication primarily reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the first in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices; as a result, they established him as a proficient composer.
These "modern" pieces mark the end of his middle creative period. The nine parts of his Musae Sioniae (1605–10) and the 1611 published collections of liturgical music (masses, hymns, magnificats) follow the German Protestant chorale style. With these, at the behest of a circle of orthodox Lutherans, he followed the Duchess Elizabeth, who ruled the duchy in the duke's absence. In place of popular music, one now expected religious music from Praetorius.
From 1613 he also worked at the court of John George I, Elector of Saxony at Dresden, where he was responsible for festive music. He was exposed to the latest Italian music, including the polychoral works of the Venetian School. His subsequent development of the form of the chorale concerto, particularly the polychoral variety, resulted directly from his familiarity with the music of such Venetians as Giovanni Gabrieli. The solo-voice, polychoral, and instrumental compositions Praetorius prepared for these events mark the high period of his artistic creativity.
He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to improve the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.
Praetorius was a prolific composer; his compositions show the influence of Italian composers and his younger contemporary Heinrich Schütz. His works include the nine volume Musae Sioniae (1605–10), a collection of more than twelve hundred (ca. 1244) chorale and song arrangements; many other works for the Lutheran church; and Terpsichore (1612), a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances, which is both his most widely known work, and his sole surviving secular work.
The familiar harmonization of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming) was written by Praetorius in 1609.
Praetorius was the greatest musical academic of his day and the Germanic writer of music best known to other 17th-century musicians. He compiled an encyclopedic record of contemporary musical practices.
Works for Winds
Adaptable Music
- Dances from "Terpsichore" (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Minakuchi) (c. 1612/2016)
All Wind Works
- Dance Suite (arr. Marlatt) (c. 1612/2017)
- Dances from "Terpsichore" (arr. Fenske) (c. 1612/)
- Dances from "Terpsichore" (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Minakuchi) (c. 1612/2016)
- Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming (arr. Kerchner) (1998)
- A Renaissance Pageant (arr. Harnsberger) (c. 1612/2002)
- Tänze aus Terpsichore (arr. and orch. Pilato) (c. 1612/2011)
- Terpsichore Dance Suite (arr. Sato) (c. 1612/2003/2010)