Michael Praetorius

Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist.  He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns.

Praetorius was the greatest musical academic of his day.  He compiled an encyclopedic record of contemporary musical practices. While Praetorius made some refinements to figured-bass practice  and to tuning practice, his importance to scholars of the 17th century derives from his discussions of the normal use of instruments and voices in ensembles, the standard pitch of the time, and the state of modal, metrical, and fugal theory.

His expansive but unfinished treatise, Syntagma Musicum, appeared in three volumes.