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 Forgacs 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. Forgacs 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...