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August 2: Livonian Brothers of the Sword.

Caribbean pirates.

Year 1560 (MDLX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–June[link]

• February 27 – The Treaty of Berwick, which expels the French from the Kingdom of Scotland, is signed by the Kingdom of England and the Congregation of Scotland.
• March 7 – A Spanish-led expedition, commanded by Juan de la Cerda, 4th Duke of Medinaceli, overruns the Tunisian island of Djerba.
• March 17 – Leaders of the Amboise conspiracy, including Godefroy de Barry, seigneur de La Renaudie, make an unsuccessful attempt to storm the château of Amboise, where the young French king and queen are residing. La Renaudie is subsequently caught and executed, along with over a thousand of his followers.
• April 15 – Denmark buys the Estonian island of Saaremaa from its last prince bishop.
• May 11 – At the Battle of Djerba, the Ottoman fleet, commanded by under Piyale Pasha, overwhelms a large joint European (mainly Spanish) fleet, sinking about half its ships.
• June 12 – Battle of Okehazama: Oda Nobunaga defeats Imagawa Yoshimoto.

July–December[link]

• July 6 – The Treaty of Edinburgh is signed between England, France and Scotland. The French withdraw from Scotland. This largely ends the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland, and ends the wars between England and its northern neighbour.
• August 2 – Livonian War: Russians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Ergeme, precipitating the dissolution of the order.
• August 17 – The Roman Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.
• August 21 – A total eclipse of the sun is observable in Europe.
• September 29 – Eric XIV becomes king of Sweden upon the death of his father Gustav Vasa.
• December 5 – Seventeen-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is widowed by the death of her first husband, King Francis II of France. Her mother-in-law, Catherine de' Medici, becomes regent of France.
• December 6 – Charles IX (of France) succeeds his elder brother, Francis II, at the age of ten.

Date unknown[link]

• Publication of the complete Geneva Bible.
• The first tulip bulb is brought from Turkey to the Netherlands (probable date).
• The first scientific society, the Academia Secretorum Naturae, is founded in Naples by Giambattista della Porta.^[1]
• Solihull School is founded in the West Midlands of England.
• The oldest surviving violin (dated inside), known as the Charles IX, is made in Cremona, in northern Italy.
• Bairam Khan loses power in the Mughal Empire.
• Mongols invade and occupy Qinghai.
• The great age of piracy in the Caribbean starts around this time.

Births[link]

• January 17 – Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (d. 1624)
• June 25 – Wilhelm Fabry, German surgeon (d. 1634)
• August 7 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian serial killer (d. 1614)
• August 10 – Hieronymus Praetorius, German composer (d. 1629)
• September 11 – Krystyna Radziwiłł, Polish noblewoman (d. 1580)
• October 10 – Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian (d. 1609)
• November 3 – Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (d. 1609)
• December 3 – Jan Gruter, Dutch critic and scholar (d. 1627)
• date unknown
  • Felice Anerio, Italian composer (died 1614)
  • Charles Butler, English beekeeper and philologist (d. 1647)
  • James Crichton, Scottish scholar (d. 1582)
  • Lieven de Key, Dutch architect (d. 1627)
  • Ishida Mitsunari, Japanese samurai (d. 1600)
  • Katarzyna Ostrogska, Polish noblewoman (d. 1579)
  • Anton Praetorius, German pastor (d. 1613)
• probable
  • Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Polish military commander (d. 1621)
  • Hector MacLean of Dowart, Scottish Lord of the Clan MacLean (d. 1630)

Deaths[link]

• January 1 – Joachim du Bellay, French poet (b. c. 1522)
• January 8 – Jan Łaski, Polish Protestant evangelical reformer (b. 1499)
• February 7 – Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Florentine sculptor (b. 1493)
• February 16 – Jean du Bellay, French cardinal and diplomat (b. c. 1493)
• April 19 – Philipp Melanchthon, German humanist and reformer (b. 1497)
• June 11 – Mary of Guise, queen of James V of Scotland and regent (b. 1515)
• June 12 – Imagawa Yoshimoto, Japanese daimyo (b. 1519)
• June 12 – Ii Naomori, Japanese warrior (b. 1506)
• August 4 – Maeda Toshimasa, Japanese samurai
• August 7 – Anastasia Romanovna, wife of Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible (b. 1530)
• September 8 – Amy Robsart, English noblewoman (b. 1536)
• September 29 – King Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1496)
• September 30 – Melchior Cano, Spanish theologian (b. 1525)
• November 25 – Andrea Doria, Italian naval commander (b. 1466)
• December 5 – King Francis II of France (b. 1544)

References[link]

Lope de Aguirre (c. 1510 – 27 October 1561) was a Basque Spanish conquistador in South America. Nicknamed El Loco, 'the Madman', Aguirre is best known for his final expedition, down the Amazon river, in search of the mythical El Dorado. At the beginning he was a minor official of the expedition, but he mutinied and gained control of it, and then rebelled against and defied the Spanish monarch Philip II. By the end of the expedition, Aguirre was defeated and killed. From then on, he was considered a symbol of cruelty and treachery in colonial Spanish America,^[1][2] and has become an antihero in literature, cinema and other arts.^[3]

In Spain[link]

Aguirre was born circa 1510 in the Araotz Valley (a valley and hamlet belonging to Oñati), close to Arantzazu in the province of Gipuzkoa, northern Spain. He was the son of a nobleman, possibly from a family of court clerks. Aguirre was in his twenties and living in Seville when Hernando Pizarro returned from Peru and brought back the treasures of the Incas, inspiring Aguirre to follow in his footsteps.

In the New World[link]

Aguirre probably enlisted himself in an expedition of 250 men chosen under Rodrigo Buran. He arrived in Peru in 1536 or 1537. In Cuzco, Aguirre was responsible for the training of stallions, among other activities. As a conquistador, however, he soon became infamous for his violence, cruelty, and sedition.

In 1544, Aguirre was at the side of Peru's first viceroy, Blasco Núñez Vela, who had arrived from Spain with orders to implement the New Laws, suppress the Encomiendas, and liberate the natives. Many of the conquistadors refused to implement these laws, which prohibited them from exploiting the Indians. Aguirre, however, took part in the plot with Melchor Verdugo to free the viceroy (who had been imprisoned on the island of San Lorenzo), and thus turned against Gonzalo Pizarro (the leader of the anti-viceroy/New Laws faction). After the failed attempt, they escaped from Lima to Cajamarca, and started to gather men to help the viceroy. In the meantime, the viceroy had escaped, thanks to oidor Alvarez, to Tumbes and had formed a little army thinking that all the country was going to awaken under the royal flag. The viceroy's resistance to Pizarro and his deputy Francisco de Carvajal, the infamous "demon of the Andes," would last for two years until he was defeated in Añaquito on January 18, 1546.

Aguirre and Melchor Verdugo had gone to Nicaragua sailing to Trujillo with 33 men. Verdugo had conferred captain's rank on Rodrigo de Esquivel and Nuño de Guzmán, sergeant major rank on Aguirre and contador status to P. Henao. Henao would later participate in the expedition of Pedro de Ursúa to Omagua and El Dorado. However, in 1551, Aguirre returned to Potosí (then still part of Peru and now part of Bolivia). The judge, Francisco de Esquivel, arrested him and charged him with infraction of the laws for the protection of the Indians. The judge discounted Aguirre's reasons and his claims of gentry and sentenced him to a public flogging. His pride wounded, Aguirre waited until the end of the judge's mandate. Fearing Aguirre's vengeance, the judge fled, changing his residence constantly.

Aguirre pursued Esquivel by foot to Lima, Quito and then on to Cuzco. In three years he ran 6,000 km by foot, unshod, on the trail of Esquivel. The soldiers followed this obstinate pursuit with interest. Finally, Aguirre found him in Cuzco, in the mansion of the magistrate; while Esquivel was taking a nap in the library, wearing a coat of mail he always wore on for fear of Aguirre; Aguirre cut his temples. Protected by friends who had hidden him, he fled from Cuzco, taking refuge with a relative in Guamanga.

In 1554, needing to put down the rebellion of Hernández Girón, Alonzo de Alvarado secured a pardon for everyone who enlisted in his army and had been affiliated with Aguirre. Aguirre fought and was wounded at the battle of Chuquinga against Girón, resulting in an incurable limp that would ostracise him from his peers.

Search for El Dorado[link]

Together with his daughter he joined the 1560 expedition of Pedro de Ursúa down the Marañón and Amazon Rivers with 300 Spaniards and hundreds of natives; the actual goal of Ursúa was to send veterans from the former Peruvian civil wars away, to keep them from troublemaking, using the Eldorado myth as a lure. A year later, he participated in the overthrow and killing of Ursúa and his successor, Fernando de Guzmán, whom he ultimately succeeded. He and his men reached the Atlantic (probably by the Orinoco River), destroying native villages on the way. On March 23, 1561, Aguirre urged 186 captains and soldiers to sign an act which would proclaim him as prince of Peru, Tierra Firma and Chile.

He is reputed to have said in 1561:

I am the Wrath of God,

the Prince of Freedom,

Lord of Tierra Firme and the Provinces of Chile

In 1561, he seized Isla Margarita and brutally suppressed any opposition to his reign, killing many innocent people. When he crossed to the mainland in an attempt to take Panama, his open rebellion against the Spanish crown came to an end. He was surrounded at Barquisimeto, Venezuela, where he murdered his own daughter, Elvira, "because someone that I loved so much should not come to be bedded by uncouth people". He also killed several followers who intended to capture him. He was eventually captured and shot to death. Aguirre's body was cut into quarters and sent to various cities across Venezuela.

Popular culture[link]

Aguirre has been represented in film twice: by Klaus Kinski in the allegorical film Aguirre, the Wrath of God in 1972, and by Omero Antonutti in El Dorado in 1988.

Aguirre's ill-fated voyage is the topic of Stephen Minta's 1995 book Aguirre: The Re-Creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South America, in which Minta retraces the expedition.

Aguirre was also featured in the educational video game The Amazon Trail.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Galster, Ingrid (1996). Aguirre oder Die Willkür der Nachwelt. Die Rebellion des baskischen Konquistadors Lope de Aguirre in Historiographie und Geschichtsfiktion (1561–1992). Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag, ISBN 3-89354-075-X
• Galster, Ingrid (2011). Aguirre o La posteridad arbitraria. La rebelión del conquistador vasco Lope de Aguirre en historiografía y ficción histórica (1561-1992). Bogotá: Ed. Universidad del Rosario and Ed. Universidad Javeriana, ISBN 978-958-738-204-4 (also available as eBook).

External links[link]

• Letter from Lope de Aguirre to King Philip of Spain, 1561
• Bubers Basque Biography On Lope de Aguirre
• Extensive bibliography about Lope de Aguirre

Gasparo da Salò.

Gasparo da Salò (May 20, 1542, Salò - April 14, 1609) is the name given to Gasparo di Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and expert double bass player of which many and very detailed historical records (about 100 documents and over 80 original instruments) exist.

He was born in Salò on Lake Garda, in a family with legal, artistic, musical and craft interests. His grandfather Santino, a land and flock owner, probably producer of musical gut strings, moved from Polpenazze to Salò, capital of the Riviera del Garda, to give more opportunities to the family. The art and music scene in Salò was very rich and vibrant. Gasparo is the son and grandson of two brothers musicians, players and composers of the highest professional level, Francesco and Agostino, specialized enough to be called in documents “the violì” or even in extended form, to avoid doubts, “ the violini”. [1] 

Uncle Agostino in addition to being an expert in musical instruments [2], will become the first Kapellmeister of Salò and his son Bernardino, Gasparo's cousin, become a virtuoso musician (violinist and trombonist) working prior in Ferrara at the powerful Este music court, then in Mantua by Vincenzo Gonzaga I during Monteverdi presence, and then went to Rome as "Musician of His Holiness the Pope in the Castle of S.Angel. " 

Gasparo's musical education, certainly of the highest level seen the previous environment, takes place in the family life and in the wake of ever higher goals achieved by the lyra and viola players from Salò active in the Basilica of St. Marco in Venice, and from the Brescian violinists active also in Venice and in the European courts from the early 1540 until the end of the century. The deep musical performing education, most likely has been reached by emulation of parents, and accompanying the family violin duo, since in a document in Bergamo, in 1604, concerning music in S. Maria Maggiore, is cited as a very talented violone player. 

When his father died, around 1562, he moved to Brescia. Immediately rent a house with shop in a neighborhood hub of musical life, the Contrada Antegnati, for the presence of the famous dynasty of organ builders and other skilled multi-instrumentalists in the Second Quadra St. John, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio del Podestà (now Via Cairoli) and married soon after. The ability to rent almost immediately a house with shop, in addition to the little possibilities derived from the division of inheritance, not certainly conspicuous for the number of brothers and sisters, can be derived almost certainly from an already very good string making trade, because three years after, work and earns allow him to marry Isabetta Cassetti daughter of a potter artisan and glassmaker. Besides that, maintains friendly relations and involvement with professional artistic reasons with Girolamo Virchi, one of the most prominent artist-craftsmen of the city, defined in the 1563 document "maestro de musica instrumentis", which in 1565 will be godfather of Gasparo's son Francesco, the first of six others, three males called Marcantonio, two of whom died almost immediately, and three daughters. 

In addition, in that neighborhood lived two very famous organists of Brescia Cathedral, Fiorenzo Mascara and his successor Costanzo Antegnati, and a very good violin player, Giuseppe Biagini. Like many other Brescian multi-instrumentalists, Mascara was also an excellent viola da gamba player. The direct knowledge of, and friendship with Virchi and Antegnati's work open up new artistic horizons and consequently new strings and violins concept and sound. Appraisal of the Policy of 1568 (a tax return) testifies to a flourishing business, which will continue in significant growth. In 1575 bought a house in the Cossere district, his historic headquarter, and subsequently many goods. His workshop quickly became one of the most important in Europe, if not the most important, in the second half of 1500 for the production of every type of stringed instrument of the time. Developed an art to a very high level, and passed it to 5 students: the eldest son Francisco, the Frenchman Alexandro de Marsiliis (from Marseille, France), Giovanni Paolo Maggini from Botticino in the surroundings of Brescia, Jacomo de Lafranchini from Valle Camonica, and a certain, not well identified Baptista. Exports reached Rome, Venice and France, as is clear from the Policy of 1588 and other documents, buying strings and precious woods for his art from Rome and Venice. The business allowed him to acquire extensive landholdings in the territory of Calvagese, with adjoining manor houses and farmhouses. Gasparo, humanly, is also revealed careful and sensitive. After have done assistance to his sister Ludovica, acts as guardian to the three sons of his wife brother, Rocco Cassetti, presumably dead, with his own wife, in the plague of 1577. 

He died April 14, 1609. The short but highly significant death act is known and reads: Messer Gasparo Bertolotti maestro di violini is dead & buried in Santo Joseffo. The exact location where his remains lie in the Brescia musical Pantheon, in company with Antegnati Costanzo, Don Cesare Bolognini and Benedetto Marcello, unfortunately is not known. One of his most famous double basses, with the rapidity of response similar to that of a violin (a property of the XVIII-XIX century virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti) is preserved today in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice; a second, exceptionally rare, in practice a real unicum worldwide in what still also has the original head with six holes for the pegs of a violone contrabasso, has been discovered by roman master Luigi Ottaviani in the stores of, and now is on display, in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome. 

Artistic life 

It is debatable whether Gasparo da Salò or others like Gasparo Duiffopruggar or Andrea Amati were the first to produce the violin in its basically modern form; surely Gasparo developed an instrument of modern character, very powerful in tone (the violins at that time had to play mixed with cornettos and trombones in open air places during processions) and very quick in response, that was later studied by Stradivari between 1690 and 1700 for the model called Long Strads. In this last years of studies on the growing of the brescian strings instruments and of violin in early times, come evident the opera of the an anonymous master of 1495 for viols and the Micheli dynasty from Montichiari (Brescia)active from 1520–25 and the oldest in the world. The instruments from Brescia, in all the Renaissance period from 1490, were spread all over Europe and more requested in high musical courts than Cremonese ones until 1630 year in which the plague killed all the best brescian masters, giving opportunity for Cremona to raise his trade; a reply of Fulgenzio Micanzio to a letter of Galileo Galilei of 1636 testifies it: "the instruments from Brescia are easy to buy..." and another document testify " because you can find its in every corner...". It is also very interesting to state that the word "violino" appear in Brescia archive documents starting from 1530 and in Cremona only in the last two decades of XVI century. Some of the brescian violins were wonderfully decorated, others have some rough features of finishing but all always have a perfect very powerful and beautiful tone.

Gasparo start the activity and continues it when is not yet extinct the musical style of early sixteenth century, in which vocal and instrumental full emancipation stimulate each other. For this reason his production covers all possible variants of string instruments, both as a organological type, as both as variety of models, with a sporadic production of cetere (cittern), dating to the decades following the death of Girolamo Virchi. 

He built violins with measures already perfect for a modern violin, in an era not yet standardized, as well as small models, but are typical the particularly large; built violas of different sizes from small to very large (39 to 44.5 cm, both alto and tenor, in turn large or small in size, sometimes with only two corners), violas da gamba, violins, cellos, violones, probably lyre and lironi. 

It is important to follow the evolution of its production from the numerous references in the many documents regarding violin making in Brescia, scattered throughout the world by Livi and Foffa, and other historians of early twentieth century. Gasparo is revealed as early as 1568 and until 1579 as “maestro di violini”. It should be noted, however, that the title of the manufacturer in Brescia "master of the violin," is clearly distinct in contemporary documents from the period of "sonadore de violini" (the violin players); the title of master start since 1558 and is attributed first to such Guglielmo Frigiadi and Francesco Inverardi before Gasparo, which at that time was still in Salò. Curiously, his oldest competitor, Andrea Amati, of which we know so far, will not recognize this honor, and will not have the wealth of evidence of documents on violin making like Gasparo (eleven for Amati, slightly less than a hundred for Gasparo ), the only one document that clearly mentions the work of Amati is also the last to see him alive, it is very late, of 1576, eight years after the Gasparian and says simply: "l'arte sua è de far strumenti da sonar” ("his art is of making instruments to play") without mentioning, like in all the others, to the acclaimed violin, which Amati, has practiced seems since around 1560 and apparently with great success. 

From 1581 and until 1588 the mentions of Gasparo like master of violin (begun in 1568), is further and substantially changed and specified for 9 times, with various quotations in Latin, in “artefici (or artifex) instrumentorum musicorum” (maker of musical instruments) and twice in Italian “artefice d'istrumenti musici” (maker of instruments for music) and “instrumenti de musicha” (of music) in order to emphasize his mastery of all kinds. 

In 1585 he resumed the old tradition of "master of violins”, which will continue to be his specialty from 1591 until his death. The number of violin citations is interrupted briefly in February and March 1597 with that of magister (o magistero) a citharis (magister of citterns), that's special and sought after type of instrument called cetra, or more commonly cetera. Of him remains a significant though not very high number of instruments certainly true, about eighty, very rare examples exceptional mastery of violin making, with exceptional sound characteristics. 

The best of Gasparo are violas and double basses, favorite from virtuosos worldwide for their powerful sound, preferred to those of Stradivari, together with those of his pupil Maggini, since all have a very full-bodied tone and penetrating , a fast response and a power unsurpassed, designed by Antonio Stradivari in 1690 and 1700, that is 100 years later of violin making changes, after the Gasparian goals. It was also greatly re-evaluated by Charles Beare and others [3] its importance with regard to the canonization of the characteristics of the oldest and finest violins in the world with a strict technical comparison on sound with the best works of the last period of Guarneri del Gesu, such as the violin Vieuxtemps in 1741, in which Guarneri copied very strictly the arching used by Gasparo, which developed an instrument of modern character, very powerful in tone (the violins at that time had to play very loudly, mixed with cornettos and trombones in open air places during processions. Gasparo made, probably with the help of Virchi for the outlines and decorative part, a truly unique, wonderful violin that belonged from 1570 to the Archduke Ferdinand I of Tyrol. The masterpiece was then inserted into the Habsburg imperial collections, and after being gone from them, was bought in 1841 by the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull, who used it, along with a magnificent Guarneri del Gesu and Nicolo Amati large model, for nearly forty years tour of frenzied, fiery improvisation and repertory. The violin has measures, profile, and set the perfect violin characters like stated in the most recent international meeting, held in 2009 in Salò as a team of interdisciplinary studies [4] which has corrected dubious attributions of the masterpiece [5], in addition to that, the violin has virtuoso purfling made of 5 very thin layers of ebony and figue wood chained in arabesques inlaid on bottom, while the head is decorated with a beautiful golden polychrome sculpture, a pitto' head and an angel, originally embellished with gemstones and golden studs. 

For his artistic versatility and for the transition period in which Gasparo operated, many of the characteristics of Gasparian art are yet to be fully appreciated through a really deep study of all its production, both modern models and hybrids with the oldest (lyre, lironi, viola da brazzo, also with only one pair of corners, viola da gamba with and without corners, citterns). 

The sound of genuine Gasparo instruments is always very strong, powerful, and speedy, but a little dark, typical of the Brescian school, like that of viola da braccio. Some of his violins desclosed the door for the Guarneri idea of one of the best violin sound in the world.

Gasparo as already stated, was a double bass virtuoso, which makes us understand his high knowledge of the instrument. For a religious ceremony in St. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo in 1604, is paid more than double the other, as violone player. 

==Notes== 

   1. ^ Documents are reproduced in A. M. Mucchi, “Gasparo da Salò” , 1940

   2. ^ Catalog "Gasparo da Salò architetto del suono", pg. 16  

   3. ^ Catalogue of the international exhibition on Giovanni Paolo Maggini held in Brescia in 2007  

   4. ^ City of Salò, Celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the death of Gasparo da Salò, organological and music instruments exhibition, and conference "Gasparo da Salo architetto del suono" Salò 4 to 27 April 2009, where was presented, for first and unique time outside Norway, the Ole Bull violin, a very special loan from the Vestlandske Kustindustrimuseum of Bergen (Norway), and instruments from the National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, the Bank fur Staats Baden Wurttemberg (Karlsruhe), the Vettori Collection (Florence), the Biondo collection (Salò) and documents from the Brescia State Archive, catalog and study day have seen contributions from Marco Bizzarrini, Marcella Borgogni, Brigitte Maria Brandmair, Casali Flavio, Flavio Dassenno, Benjamin Hebbert, Rudolph Hopfner, Harald Herresthal, Trond Indahl, Mariella Marchina Annibale, Attilio Mazza, Luigi Ottaviani , Stefano Pio. See also: Ole Bull Celebration, Bergen 4 to 6 June 2010, Conference on Ole Bull's violins. 

   5. ^ Catalog "Gasparo da Salo architect of sound," pp. 80 et seq.

References[link]

Hieronymus Praetorius (10 August 1560 – 27 January 1629) was a north German composer and organist of the late Renaissance and very early Baroque eras. He was not related to the much more famous Michael Praetorius, though the Praetorius family had many distinguished musicians throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

Life[link]

He was born in Hamburg, and spent most of his life there. Praetorius studied organ early with his father (Jacob Praetorius, also a composer), afterwards going to Cologne for further study. In 1580 he became organist in Erfurt, but only remained there two years, returning to Hamburg in 1582. Back in Hamburg he worked with his father as assistant organist at St. Jacobi, becoming principal organist in 1586 when his father died. His son, Jacob, was born that same year, and was also destined to become a composer.

In 1596 he went to Gröningen where he met Michael Praetorius and Hans Leo Hassler; presumably he became acquainted with their music, and through them the music of the contemporary Italian Venetian School, at this time.

He remained in Hamburg as organist at St. Jacobi until his death.

Music and influence[link]

Praetorius wrote masses, ten settings of the Magnificat, and numerous motets, mostly in Latin. Most of his music is in the Venetian polychoral style, which uses numerous voices divided into several groups. These compositions are the first to be written in north Germany in the progressive Venetian style. Choir sizes range from 8 to 20, with the voices divided into two, three or four groups, and he must have had well-trained and sophisticated musicians at his disposal, considering both the amount and the difficulty of music he wrote for these ensembles.

While progressive in writing in the Venetian style, he was conservative in using Latin and avoiding the basso continuo, which was eagerly adopted by many other contemporary German composers. Most of his vocal music is a cappella.

Praetorius was also the first composer to compile a collection of four-part German chorales with organ accompaniment, a sound which was to become a standard in Protestant churches for several centuries. The music in the collection was compiled from four churches in Hamburg; 21 of the 88 settings are of his own composition.

Some of his organ compositions survive, including nine settings of the Magnificat, which are in a highly contrapuntal cantus firmus style. In addition to these settings, numerous anonymous pieces in north German collections of the time are now attributed with reasonable certainty to Hieronymus Praetorius.

External links[link]

• Free scores by Hieronymus Praetorius in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

References and further reading[link]

• Article "Hieronymus Praetorius," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5