This translation of the third volume of Syntagma musicum is part of a multi-volume work by German composer and theorist Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). Volume III deals with terminology and performance practice, and offers us the most detailed commentary available from the 17th century about the performance of particular pieces of music. For modern scholars, this third volume is the preeminent source of contemporary information on performance practice for the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Praetorius is the most often quoted and excerpted writer on performance practice. In his translation, Kite-Powell has worked with a notoriously difficult syntax to produce a definitive English edition of this important work.
