Old German Dance
Michael Praetorius
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Browse piano sheets by Michael Praetorius on Zen Virtual Piano. Born possibly in 1571 in Creuzburg an der Werra, near Eisenach, Germany, Michael Praetorius had a pastor for a father, and a strict Lutheran at that. His father's uncompromising beliefs forced the family to move more than once, and Praetorius studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder without graduating. In 1587, at the age of 16, he became university organist at the Marienkirche, and around 1594 he entered the duke's service as chamber organist. A boy raised among his father's strict beliefs who took the organ stool at 16 stays close to the church, though at the keyboard rather than the pulpit. He completed the nine volumes of Musae Sioniae in 1610, the first of them published shortly after he became Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel, and he left over 1,200 works. Terpsichore, from 1612, is a set of 312 dance tune arrangements built largely on tunes that the French dancing master Antoine Emeraud and the violinist Pierre-Francisque Caroubel had brought to Duke Heinrich Julius's court. In his introduction Praetorius takes credit for arranging the music rather than composing the tunes. A composer who says plainly that he arranged rather than composed the tunes of Terpsichore is open about where his own work begins and ends. He died in 1621, perhaps on his 50th birthday, and lies buried beneath the organ of St Marien in Wolfenbüttel. A lifelong committed Christian, he often regretted never taking holy orders, though he wrote several theological tracts that are now lost. An organist buried beneath the organ of his own church closes the account with a fitting detail.
Browse piano sheets by Michael Praetorius on Zen Virtual Piano.
Born possibly in 1571 in Creuzburg an der Werra, near Eisenach, Germany, Michael Praetorius had a pastor for a father, and a strict Lutheran at that. His father's uncompromising beliefs forced the family to move more than once, and Praetorius studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder without graduating. In 1587, at the age of 16, he became university organist at the Marienkirche, and around 1594 he entered the duke's service as chamber organist. A boy raised among his father's strict beliefs who took the organ stool at 16 stays close to the church, though at the keyboard rather than the pulpit.
He completed the nine volumes of Musae Sioniae in 1610, the first of them published shortly after he became Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel, and he left over 1,200 works. Terpsichore, from 1612, is a set of 312 dance tune arrangements built largely on tunes that the French dancing master Antoine Emeraud and the violinist Pierre-Francisque Caroubel had brought to Duke Heinrich Julius's court. In his introduction Praetorius takes credit for arranging the music rather than composing the tunes. A composer who says plainly that he arranged rather than composed the tunes of Terpsichore is open about where his own work begins and ends.
He died in 1621, perhaps on his 50th birthday, and lies buried beneath the organ of St Marien in Wolfenbüttel. A lifelong committed Christian, he often regretted never taking holy orders, though he wrote several theological tracts that are now lost. An organist buried beneath the organ of his own church closes the account with a fitting detail.
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Michael Praetorius
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Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist and music theorist born possibly in 1571 who died in 1621 and is buried beneath the organ in St Marien in Wolfenbüttel.
Terpsichore is a 1612 compilation of 312 dance tune arrangements by Praetorius, who takes credit for arranging the music rather than composing the tunes.
It is a collection of which Praetorius published the first of nine volumes shortly after becoming Kapellmeister at Wolfenbüttel, completing the set in 1610.
His musical training was probably largely self-taught; he studied divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder but did not graduate.