| After J. S. Bach, only a few German composers such as Mendelssohn, Brahms, Reger and Karg-Elert were interested in composing organ music based on the Lutheran chorale. Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was born the youngest of twelve children of a Roman Catholic father, Johann B. Karg, and a Lutheran mother, Marie F. Ehlert. Karg-Elert, a prolific composer, wrote music for orchestra, voice, piano, flute, harmonium (Kunstharmonium) and organ. Of these, his music for harmonium and organ is best known. This dissertation will focus on Karg-Elert's treatment of the Lutheran chorale and Gregorian chant in his organ works.;Generally Karg-Elert's organ music is divided into three periods: 1904-1915,1915-1930, and 1930-1933. His early organ compositions are rearrangements (transcriptions) of his harmonium works. Op. 65 Choral-Improvisationen, composed around 1907-1909, is his first original work for the organ. Most of his other chorale-based works were composed during his first period (1904-1915). Unlike other German composers, Karg-Elert was influenced by French Impressionism; this influence is evidenced prominently in such second-period works as Op. 106 Cathedral Windows, based on Gregorian chant. In the third and last compositional period, Karg-Elert composed no organ works specifically based on chorale or chant melodies; rather, he simply quoted well-known chorale melodies in larger works.;Karg-Elert used both the Lutheran chorale and Gregorian chant as cantus firmus in many of his organ works. He treated these cantus firmi in diverse ways, using various compositional techniques, forms, styles and genres. In this dissertation, these pieces will be analyzed and discussed with regard to how Karg-Elert integrates Lutheran chorale and Gregorian chant into the music, and will be examined and classified by forms, styles, genres and treatments of cantus firmi. |
