Syntagma musicum

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Syntagma musicum

work by Praetorius

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July 14, 2026

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The Syntagma musicum is a significant four-volume work by German music theorist and composer Michael Praetorius, published between 1614 and 1620. It is a crucial source for understanding music and musical instruments of the 17th century.12

The most important volume, Volume II, provides detailed descriptions and classifications of numerous musical instruments, both ancient and contemporary to Praetorius's time. This volume is particularly valuable for its illustrations of these instruments. The Syntagma musicum also covers various aspects of music theory and practice, reflecting the musical landscape of the early Baroque period.12

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wind instrument
Trumpet-type aerophones
…clearly depicted in Michael Praetorius’s Syntagma musicum (1619). Praetorius’s illustration of trombones, for example, features crooks inserted between the slide and bell sections. Terminal crooks were common on trumpets from the 17th through the 19th century. They were also used, singly and in combination, on the horn until the mid-18th…
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…clearly depicted in Michael Praetorius’s Syntagma musicum (1619). Praetorius’s illustration of trombones, for example, features crooks inserted between the slide and bell sections. Terminal crooks were common on trumpets from the 17th through the 19th century. They were also used, singly and in combination, on the horn until the mid-18th…
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Michael Praetorius
…music theorist and composer whose Syntagma musicum (1614–20) is a principal source for knowledge of 17th-century music and whose settings of Lutheran chorales are important examples of early 17th-century religious music.
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…music theorist and composer whose Syntagma musicum (1614–20) is a principal source for knowledge of 17th-century music and whose settings of Lutheran chorales are important examples of early 17th-century religious music.
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musical instrument
History and evolution
…composer Michael Praetorius, in his Syntagma musicum (“Musical Treatise”), was able to give a detailed account of families of instruments of all kinds—recorders, flutes, shawms, trombones, viols, and violins.
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…composer Michael Praetorius, in his Syntagma musicum (“Musical Treatise”), was able to give a detailed account of families of instruments of all kinds—recorders, flutes, shawms, trombones, viols, and violins.
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concerto
The Baroque vocal-instrumental concerto (c. 1585–1650)
…theorist Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum (“Writings on Music”). Praetorius classified the concerto, along with the motet and the falsobordone (or simple harmonization of a liturgical reciting tone), among vocal pieces that have a sacred or serious secular text. He recognized the two general, and related, types that were…
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…theorist Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum (“Writings on Music”). Praetorius classified the concerto, along with the motet and the falsobordone (or simple harmonization of a liturgical reciting tone), among vocal pieces that have a sacred or serious secular text. He recognized the two general, and related, types that were…
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