Hans Leo Hassler

A German Lutheran composer and organist of the late Renaisance and early Baroque eras, Hassler travelled to Venice as a young man to study with Andrea Gabrieli, becoming friends with the younger Giovanni Gabrieli. He was one of the first German musicians to bring the Venetian polychoral style across the Alps to Northern Europe, and his music was to be a strong influence on the younger Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz.