In the time of Praetorius, the cornettino seems to have sometimes been used in sacred vocal music to play in unison with voices (esp. tenors) an octave higher.
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Some composers who specified the use of the cornettino in their scores include: Michael Praetorius, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Matthias Weckmann, Antonio Bertali, Johann Caspar Horn, Johann Erasmus Kindermann, Matthias Spiegler, Johann Vierdanck, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann.
He was not related to the much more famous Michael Praetorius, though the Praetorius family had many distinguished musicians throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
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His son, Jacob, was born that same year, and was also destined to become a composer.
Jacob Praetorius or Schultz (* 8 February 1586 † 21 or 22 October 1651) was a German Baroque composer and organist, and the son of Hieronymus Praetorius.
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His family is not related to notable contemporary Michael Praetorius.
The soundbox has an hourglass shape and looks very much like the illustration of a nyckelharpa in Michael Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum III of 1620 (where it is called Schlüssel fiddel).
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A Swedish scholar, Per-Ulf Allmo, has suggested that the instrument and another in the same style were probably built in Särna, northern Dalarna around 1680, with Praetorius as inspiration, and with no close affinity with the nyckelharpa tradition in northern Uppland, the stronghold of the instrument.
It is depicted in Praetorius' music dictionary Syntagma Musicum published in 1619.
Praetorius mentions and illustrates three sizes of the Stamentienpfeiff, the treble 20 in.
However, it was Praetorius who, in 1618, provided the first systematic definition of the quodlibet as "a mixture of diverse elements quoted from sacred and secular compositions".
The In Dulci Jubilo à 20 cum Tubis setting by Praetorius from his vast Polyhymnia Caduceatrix & Panegyrica of 1619, seems to require a tenor cornett on the third line of Choro I, the part is scored for a viola (alto) and a cornett playing together.
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In the works of Schütz, Schein, Scheidt, Praetorius, Gabrieli, Viadana and other composers from 16th and 17th century Venice, the tenor cornett appears to have been employed as the 3rd or 4th voice in instrumental and vocal music, usually playing alto or tenor ranged musical parts.
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Michael Praetorius was not enthusiastic about the sound of the tenor cornett, he describes it as "bullocky and horn-like" in his Syntagma Musicum of 1619.
Praetorius | Michael Praetorius | Hieronymus Praetorius | Johannes Praetorius | Jacob Praetorius |
Approximately 80 minutes into the 1951 movie People Will Talk (in the "railroad" scene), Mrs. Praetorius breaks into tears and compares herself in her current emotional state to "a kind of idiot Elsie Dinsmore."
#"Praetorius (Courante)" – Instrumental 1:54 (Traditional by Michael Praetorius)
The film also highlights Praetorius's close friend and confidant, physics professor Lyonel Barker (Slezak), who plays bass viol in the student/faculty orchestra conducted by Praetorius.