(born Schultze) Michael (II) Praetorius (son of Hieronymus Praetorius, brother of Jacob Praetorius and Johann Praetorius) Johann Martin Radeck Johann Adam Reinken (studied under Scheidemann) Christian Ritter (studied under Christoph Bernhard) Georg Wilhelm Saxer Heinrich Scheidemann (studied under Sweelinck) Gottfried Scheidt (studied under Sweelinck; brother to Samuel Scheidt) Samuel Scheidt (studied under Sweelinck) Johann Christian Schieferdecker (friend to Reinhard Keiser (for whom he often composed operas for the Hamburg Opera); student, assistant, and successor to Buxtehude) Melchior Schildt (studied under Sweelinck) Paul Siefert (studied under Sweelinck; teacher to Andreas Neunhaber and possibly Christoph Bernhard) Johann Steffens Delphin Strungk (studied under Sweelinck; father of Nicolaus Adam Strungk) Nicolaus Adam Strungk (son of Delphin Strungk) Franz Tunder (possibly studied under Frescobaldi; father-in-law and predecessor as Organist of St. Mary's Church, Lübeck to Buxtehude) Andreas Nicolaus Vetter (studied under Pachelbel and Georg Caspar Wecker) Matthias Weckmann (studied under Schütz, Jacob Praetorius and Scheidemann) Andreas Werckmeister (possible teacher to Johann Gottfried Walther) Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (teacher to George Frideric Handel) South German organ school Overview The tradition of the south was shaped by composers who travelled to Italy or studied under Italian masters. The first important southerner was Johann Jakob Froberger, who visited Italy and France and cultivated Italian idioms in his toccatas (influenced by Girolamo Frescobaldi and Giovanni de Macque) and the French lutenists' style brisé in his harpsichord suites – he was also the first to establish the standard model for the suite, which was later used by both south and north German composers. Froberger's influence was felt all over Europe and extended far into the future: Albrechtsberger, Beethoven's teacher, knew and respected Froberger's work, and a copy of a part of one of his composition exists in the hand of Mozart. Froberger did not have any significant pupils, but the other important southerner, Johann Kaspar Kerll, did achieve fame as a teacher and influenced numerous composers. Kerll initially studied under Giovanni Valentini, an Italian composer who worked in Vienna; he then travelled to Italy and visited many more regions of Europe. Kerll's influence was perhaps short-lived compared to Froberger's (the most important fact here being Händel's frequent borrowing from Kerll's work), but he was a model (perhaps even taught) for the Nuremberg-born Johann Pachelbel, whose work is the highest point of the south German tradition. Typical south German organs differed from their northern counterparts and could have only a dozen or