Gallus Dressler (16 October 1533 – 1580/9) was a German composer and music theorist who served as Kantor in the church school at Magdeburg.
[1] Though a few of his works have remained in the choral repertoire, he is best known for his theoretical writings, especially his Praecepta musicae poeticae (MS, 1563), which contains some of the earliest detailed description of the compositional process of the Renaissance motet.
[4] After a brief tenure at Jena in 1558, Dressler succeeded Martin Agricola as Kantor of the church school in Magdeburg, where most of his career was spent.
[6] Dressler's chief contribution comes to us in this unpublished manuscript, which from its organization and tone may have been his notes for teaching composition classes.
[8] The Latin text as published by Bernhard Engelke in Geschichtsblätter für Stadt und Land Magdeburg, XLIX-L (1914-1915) is available online through Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum, but it is somewhat flawed.