Selected Organ Works of Joseph Ahrens: a Stylistic Analysis of Freely Composed Works and Serial Compositions
Selected Organ Works of Joseph Ahrens: A Stylistic Analysis of Freely Composed Works and Serial Compositions A document submitted to The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Keyboard Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music 2013 by Eun Hye Kim MM, University of Cincinnati, 2007 MM, Hansei University, 2004 BA, Seoul Jangsin University and Theological Seminary, 2002 Committee Chair: Roberta Gary, DMA Committee Member: John Deaver, DMA Committee Member: David Berry, PhD Abstract Joseph Ahrens (1904–97) was a twentieth-century German composer, virtuoso organist, and teacher. He was a professor of church music at the Berlin Academy of Music (Berlin Hochschule für Musik), organist at the Cathedral of St. Hedwig, and choir director and organist at the Salvator Church in Berlin. He contributed to twentieth-century church music, especially of the Roman Catholic Church, and composed many works for organ and various choral forces. His organ pieces comprise chorale-based pieces, free (non-chorale) works, liturgical pieces, and serial compositions. He was strongly influenced by twentieth-century German music trends such as the organ reform movement, neo-baroque style, and, in his late period, serial techniques. This document examines one freely composed work and two serial compositions by Joseph Ahrens: Canzone in cis (1944), Fantasie und Ricercare (1967), and Trilogia Dodekaphonica (1978). The purpose is to demonstrate that Ahrens’s style developed throughout his career, from a post-Wagnerian harmonic language to one that adopted twentieth-century techniques, including serialism, while retaining the use of developed thematic material and a connection to neo-baroque characteristics in terms of forms and textures.
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