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Johann Praetorius (25 November 1595 – 25 July 1660) was a Northern German composer and organist.[1]
Johann Praetorius was born in Hamburg and was one of the seven children of the famous organist Hieronymus Praetorius (1560-1629), one of the leading personalities of Northern German organ school.
Two of her three brothers were also organists: Jacob (1586 – 1651, organist at Saint Peter's Church beginning in 1603), and Michael Praetorius II (died in 1624; not to be confused with the musician of the same name).
Johann Praetorius first studied music with his father; like Jacob, then he was a pupil of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam.
Johann was appointed organist and church secretary at the Church of St. Nicholas, a post he held until his death. He was also active as an organist at Old St. Michael's Church and at the Cloister of St. Mary Magdalene.
During his forty eight years of service as an orgonist he was the colleague of important Hamburg organists such as his father Hieronymus, his brother Jacob, Matthias Weckmann, Heinrich Scheidemann and Johann Adam Reincken.
It was assumed that Johann also composed organ pieces. It was only the musicologist Klaus Beckmann who attributed to him organ compositions that had previously been attributed under the names of other composers or as anonymous works.
All those organ works attributed to him were recorded by Friedhelm Flamme for the JPC's CPO label. The following text is selected from the information on his album „Johann Praetorius: Organ Works“ (SACD and number 7 in the Norddeutscher Orgelbarock series released in 2007).