One of the most prominent masters of the early part of the seventeenth century was Michael Prætorius (1571–1621). He witnessed the great change which was then taking place in music, but contributed nothing to it himself. He endeavored, however, to educate his countrymen to appreciate the new style of secular music which, in Italy, was then making rapid headway in the operas of Peri, Caccini and others. For a number of years he was organist and director of music at Brunswick, where he died. In his great admiration and study of the new Italian masters, he did not, like his eminent successor, Heinrich Schütz, lose his nationality. The number of works he composed, collected, and elaborated is two thousand. His most important contribution to music, however, is his “Syntagma Musicum,” a theoretical work of great value to students of musical history. Concerning instruments and the theory of music, it is a rich source of knowledge. During the seventeenth century the opera was invented and ardently cultivated in Italy. With the adoption of the new lyric style of recitative and aria, much greater scope was possible for artistic instrumental music than ever before. The violas and other bowed instruments were brought into prominence, and in the course of the seventeenth century formed the basis of the orchestra. Yet, during the latter half of the sixteenth century considerable use was made of instrumental accompaniment in church music. In the choir, directed by Orlando Lasso, in Munich, from 1569 till 1595 there were twelve bass singers, fifteen tenors, thirteen altos, twenty sopranos, and thirty instrumentalists. The Dresden band had ninety-three wind and percussion instruments, and only thirteen stringed instruments. The curious character of some of these combinations is indicated in the clearest possible way on the title-page of Prætorius’ “Syntagma Musicum.” Here we see three separate choruses, each accompanied by a separate organ. In the first of these (at the left of the illustration) the voices are supported by stringed instruments, in the second (at the right), by reed instruments, and in the third, by trombones and bassoon.