Re-discovering the mighty Praetorius Family tread

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Hello dear fellows of GmG, mister Gurn Blanston, I'm re-discovering the Praetorius family.

Jacob Praetorius (the elder)
Jakob Praetorius (the nephew)
(a slight disambiguation over these two, one was more into Motets and a bit of organ)

While Jakob Praetorius was an organist straight flush. Don't get confused here. Both of them are on CPO label, just like Widman Praetorius and Hyronimus Praetorius(one of my favorite in this family). Than there is Michael Praetorius everyone know of Baroque era. I have them all almost, except Jakob Praetorius double album on CPO.

Since I explore early renaissance enough now I'm at late renaissance bordering early baroque. If we take for granted year zero officially is Claudio Monteverdi, whit is Operas. But we all know Baroque started quite early for Germans and Frenchs, so are the Praetorius (skipping Michael) are  late renaissance or early baroque, even for a trillion dollars I could not answer this folks, but is it that important... for music historian and musicologist it is?

[Mandryka]

Hieronymus is a great favourite of mine for his magnificat cycle, I guess written as the c16 turned into the c17. Here's the start of it all, the opening of the magnificat primi toni, sounds which herald in the great North German organ school.

https://www.youtube.com/v/qO1U0cKv6G8

I don't think all the composer Praetoriuses were related -- it would be fabulous if someone could find a family tree and note the composers called Praetorius who don't belong to it. In particular I think that Michael Praetorius, the author of Terpsichore and other things, was completely unrelated to the Hamburg Praetorius family -- i.e. unrelated to Johann, Jakob and Hieronymus.

Hamburg was one hell of a cultural centre. At St Peter's Church, there was Jacob Praetorius. At St. Catherine's, Scheidemann. At St. Jacob's, there was Weckmann. And at St Nicholas's Church, Johann Praetorius.