Review of Michael Praetorius; Jeffery T. Kite-Powell trans. and ed., Syntagma musicum III (Oxford University Press, 2004)

Tim S. Pack
2006 Music Theory Online  
The third volume of Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius is one of the most important treatises on musical forms, terminology, and performance practices of the early seventeenth century; it is also one of the earliest sources to discuss thoroughbass theory. Due to the complexity of its prose, which incorporates German, Latin, and Greek, more than three centuries passed before the first English translation was completed. Jeffery Kite-Powell successfully confronts Praetorius's highly technical
more » ... nd intricate language and in so doing makes Syntagma musicum III tangible to a wider audience of performers, students, and educators.
doi:10.30535/mto.12.3.4 fatcat:p2xhoh5i5ffsjibpskjw2ustp4