His real name was Michael Schultheiß (Schultheiß is German for “mayor,” which in Latin is “Praetorius”).

Beginning in 1585, Praetorius studied theology at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he was also an organist. In 1595 (or earlier—other sources say 1592), he became court musician to Duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig. The Duke’s Residenz (royal seat) was not in Braunschweig, but in a few miles away in Wolfenbüttel. At first Praetorius was the Duke’s organist; in 1604, he was appointed master of the Duke’s court music. The inscription around the portrait at the left reads, “Michael Praetorius, of Creutzburg [sic] in Thüringen, the Duke of Brunswick Organ’s and Choir Music’s Master, at the age of thirty-five, in the year 1606.”

From 1613-1616, Praetorius was in Dresden, at the court of the Kurfürst von Sachsen (Elector of Saxony). Then he returned to Wolfenbüttel, but from that time on, he traveled frequently in central Germany and was very active as a musical adviser and Organisator (organizer).

He was not only a composer, but also a musicologist. From 1605 to 1610, he edited Musae Sioniae, a collection of 1244 arrangements of songs and hymns in 9 volumes. From 1615 to 1619, he edited his 3-volume Syntagma musicum, about sacred and profane musicology.