Now available for the first time in English translation, this new edition of Gallus Dressler's Praecepta musicae poeticae corrects and expands upon earlier editions of one of the most
important sixteenth-century treatments of musical theory and rhetoric. Robert Forg獺cs’ detailed study of the Latin text reveals significant and original insights into the invention of fugues
and the composition of opening, middle, and concluding sections. Forg獺cs introduces the reader to Dressler's life and work and the design and sources of Praecepta musicae poeticae,
places the treatise more fully in its humanist environment, presents additional classical sources for the text, and relates it to the work of Dressler’s contemporary music theorists. Copious
annotations and indexes of words, names, and subjects place the treatise within the broader context of German theoretical discussion, the teaching and practice of music in the sixteenth
century, and the musical life of the Lutheran Church.
