Michael Praetorius

1572-1621. German composer. This prolific and influential Lutheran composer is known widely today for one tiny piece—“Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming” (Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen). It is taken from his monumental work Musae Sioniae, published in nine volumes and containing over 1,200 simple works covering the church year. He published several other collections of music for the Lutheran service. He was one of the first Germans to write in the new Venetian concertato style in up to twelve or fifteen parts, combining voices and instruments in glittering array. He applied this style to works based on the Lutheran chorales with fine effect. He also published his Syntagma musicum in three volumes (1615-19), which contains valuable information about performance practice and also about the instruments of the period, accompanied by accurate scale drawings. His section on the organ has been very influential in recent times on the movement of organ builders back to Baroque principles.