Hieronymus Praetorius III
Hieronymus Praetorius III (1614-1629) was a German organist and composer. He was born to Jacob Praetorius and Margaretha von Kampen.
The early death of the highly talented first-born son was particularly tragic. Hieronymus Praetorius III was already considered a fully qualified organist and composer when he died on the 25th of November 1629, only three days after his fifteenth birthday.[1]
A few pieces by him are known. In addition to a 6-part marriage motet Caecilia virgo gloriosa...[2], a setting of the Magnificat Primi Toni (Zellerfeld Organ Tablatures vol.1 p.36-43: Magnificat / 1 Toni / Hieronymi / Praetorij.) has been found by Klaus Beckmann to have been composed by him[3].
History
[4]When the Zellerfeld Organ Tablatures were discovered in 1955, a Magnificat Primi Toni by a certain Hieronymi Praetorij. was found, and this piece was connected with Hieronymus Praetorius I by Gustav Fock and Werner Breig with minimal objections. However, even a cursory glance at the Magnificat Primi Toni in the Zellerfeld and Visby tablatures shows that not only are they not the same piece, but they are quite different from each other in style.
At first, musicologists attempted to reconcile this difference by ascribing it for a different purpose and being written in a different period in Hieronymus Praetorius's life.
To judge from its bravura the Clausthal-Zellerfeld Magnificat was probably intended for festive occasions rather than for the normal church service. Its highly developed style–the use of extended runs in parallel thirds or sixths, the frequent leaps of an octave or more, the fast repetition of the same tone and the climactic passage of triplets in parallel thirds concluding the final verse–suggests that it may have been one of his later compositions.[5]
However, Klaus Beckmann appears to be the first musicologist to have raised more serious questions about the authorship of this piece in his article Echtheitsprobleme im Repertoire des hanseatischen Orgelbarocks. Actually, it seemed even more unlikely that this piece could have been composed by the same Hieronymus Praetorius that had composed the Magnificat settings in the Visby Tablature. There were unreconcilable stylistic differences between the two pieces that could not be the result of one piece being written during a later stage in the composer's career; most notably, the Zellerfeld Tablature Magnificat was written in four voices, while the Magnificats in the Visby Tablature (the supposedly earlier compositions) were written in a more advanced 5-part writing style. For this reason, it seemed unlikely that this could be a later work by the same composer.
At this time, the existence of Hieronymus Praetorius III was not known to musicologists. However, around 1990, a quite fortunate discovery was made in the Commerzbibliothek in Hamburg. While looking for the epitaph for Hieronymus Praetorius (sr.), three further epitaphs were discovered, and musicologists discovered Hieronymus Praetorius I, II, III and IV, across multiple generations. H. Praetorius II and IV were theologians, but Hieronymus Praetorious III was an organist and composer.
Clearly, Hieronymus III was recognized as an extremely gifted organist and composer during his lifetime, and his talents were dearly missed by his friends and other residents of Hamburg, as the epitaph[6] written by Johann Adolph Fabricus, shows:
Epitaph for a great promise, the youngling HIERONYMUS PRAETORIUS, the grandson of the passed-away ancestor Hieronymus, the son of Jakob, died on November 25 at 10am in the year of our Lord 1629, in the 16th year of his life. ... If the great God had preserved him with his GIFT of music and the organ, then we would have restored that which we had lost with our ancestor Praetorius. But all this is now gone. May he rest in peace, and may he play the music which is hidden from our unknowing time and place for 100 years in Heaven![7]
Besides references in the text itself (gift, references to his grandfather, etc.), the mere fact that a 16 year old was deserving of such an epitaph (and such a touching one, at that) speaks to the high amount of respect held for the teenager and his organ and compositional abilities. It shows, that Hieronymus III was viewed as the hope to continue the legacy of his grandfather, who was outstanding in composition and the organ.
With this evidence in mind, it appears that the much more satisfactory solution is that the Magnificat in the Zellerfeld Organ Tablatures was the work of Hieronymus Praetorius III instead of a later work by his grandfather.
References
Beckmann, Klaus (editor). Hieronymus Praetorius: Sämtliche Orgelwerke. Vol. 1 Meister der Norddeutschen Orgelschule 1. Mainz: Schott, 2002.
Beckmann, Klaus (editor). Jakob Praetorius: Sämtliche Orgelwerke. Meister der Norddeutschen Orgelschule 6. Mainz: Schott, 2004.
Beckmann, Klaus, Die Norddeutsche Schule. Teil I: Die Zeit der Gründerväter. Mainz: Schott, 2005. 195-201.
Kite-Powell, Jeffery. The Visby (Petri) Organ Tablature: Investigation and Critical Edition. Volume 1. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen's Verlag, [1976?].
