(b Hamburg, 10 Aug 1560; d there, 27 Jan 1629). German composer. He was an organ pupil of his father Jacob (c 1530-86), a copyist and organist of St Jacobi, Hamburg. After serving at Erfurt (1580-82) he assisted his father, succeeding him in 1586; he remained there until he died. A leading composer of sacred music, he wrote c 100 motets (4 bks, 1599-1618), among the earliest Venetian-inspired polychoral works published in north Germany. Six masses (1616), nine Magnificats (1602) and some organ works also survive. His music editions include chorales (1604), the first to specify organ accompaniment.
Considered the founder of seventeenth century German organ music, Hamburg church musician Hieronymus Praetorius was also a copyist and music editor, compiling important collections of monophonic German and Latin service music and German chorales. His own taste as a composer, though, was for polychoral church music, and he is credited with importing the rich Venetian choral style to Germany.
Praetorius studied with his organist father, Jacob Praetorius, and with other figures in Hamburg and Cologne in the mid-1570s. His first church job was as organist at Erfurt from 1580 to 1582; he gave up this position to assist his father at Hamburg's Jacobikirche, and upon his father's death in 1586 he was named the church's first organist. He held this job for the rest of his life.
Almost all of his sacred choral music was published after he turned 50, although it is likely that he had been working on the scores for many years. He specialized in parody masses, based on motets, and wrote more than 100 motets of his own (including a few secular wedding motets). About half of these motets are polychoral works for two to four groups of singers, and mimic the progressive Venetian style of the time, with rich contrasts of texture and harmony, and quite active rhythm. He also produced several impressive eight-voice Magnificats.
In 1587, long before he had his own music published, Praetorius copied and disseminated to Hamburg churches a collection of monophonic German and Latin sacred music; he followed this up in 1604 with a collection of four-part German chorale settings by four Hamburg organists (including himself). This second collection is historically important as the first such German publication to call for organ accompaniment of chorales sung by congregations.
The only organ works definitely attributed to Praetorius are some full-textured Magnificat settings and a couple of chorales. Most of these Magnificat settings were composed by 1611 and included in the Visby Tablature, a collection that also includes many anonymous hymns, sequences, and Mass movements that are likely also Praetorius' work. ~ James Reel, All Music Guide
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.
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
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 contrapuntalcantus 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.
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
