Praetorius, Michael

Related Category: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies

(prētôr´ēəs), 1571–1621, German composer and musicographer, whose name originally was Schultheiss. He was a prolific composer, his Musae Sioniae (9 vol., 1605–11) alone containing 1,244 choral works. Now he is remembered chiefly for his Syntagma musicum (3 vol., 1615–19), which minutely describes the musical practices and the instruments of his day.