Initially an organist at Horn in Lower Austria, Peuerl went to Steyr in Northern Austria. He was known as an organ builder, renovator and repairer who built organs in the style known as "Praetorious". As a musician Peuerl collected a number of instrumental works between 1611 and 1625. In 1613 he composed a volume of songs but Peuerl is most important for being considered the developer of the variation suite. (This is somewhat under debate as not enough information has been gathered regarding his predecessors.) The suite consisted of a paduana, intrada, dantz, and galliard. The Dantz presented the theme while the paduana was the closest of the three variations to the original theme and the galliard and intrada were more distant. Interestingly Peuerl was the first German to use the Italian canzona of two melodic instruments in combination with a continuo. The songs which Peuerl composed seem to look to the past as they are written in the form of madrigals, ballettos and court songs. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi