Birger Petersen

Birger Petersen in front of the Mainz University of Music, 2017, photo Moritz Reinisch

Birger Petersen (born October 19, 1972 in Lübeck ) is a German composer , musicologist and university professor .

Career

Petersen studied music theory and composition at the Musikhochschule Lübeck as well as musicology, theology and philosophy at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel (PhD 2001 on Johann Mattheson's melody teaching ). After teaching activities in Lübeck, Bremen, Herford, Greifswald and Osnabrück, Petersen worked at the Rostock University of Music and Theater in the Composition and Music Theory department, since 2004 as a full-time lecturer and since 2008 as a professor. From 2008 to 2011 he was the speaker of the Institute for Music. In 2011 he was appointed professor for music theory at the University of Music at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz .

Visiting professorships led Petersen to the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon. He has been a member of the Gutenberg Academy since 2013 and was elected prorector of the Mainz University of Music in 2014; from 2015 to 2017 he was rector of the Mainz University of Music . In 2017 he was appointed to the Department of History and Cultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz due to his habilitation thesis  Sentence Theory in the 19th Century. Models at Rheinberger  also awarded the Venia legendi in musicology.

Birger Petersen has been co-editor of the church music periodical with the highest circulation in the Europa Forum Kirchenmusik since 2014   and was Vice President of the Society for Music Theory from 2014 to 2016 ; In 2013 (with Univ.-Prof. Peter Kiefer) and 2015 he took over the artistic direction of the MainzMusik Festival. For the academic year 2017/2018 he was appointed to a Senior Fellowship at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald .

The focus of his work is on the history of music theory , especially of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the communication of new music. He also publishes on organ music of the 19th and 20th centuries and on Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy of music . His main research interests include Franco-German cultural transfer in the 18th century as well as the acquisition of historical composition techniques in theory and compositional practice in the 19th century.

His compositional work has been awarded several prizes, such as the European Culture Prize of the Terminbörse Amsterdam, the Art Prize Cloppenburg and several times the Culture Prize of the Ostholstein District; In 2005 his composition  sch (-till) was  awarded a prize in the composition competition of the German Music Council.

His works are published by Are Musikverlag Mainz .

Works (selection)

• da pacem, overwriting for seven strings
• the sky, the heart , for the choir and organ
• LINGUAE , Pentecostal music for voices and instruments
• (passus.) in memoriam I , for organ
• (ritual.) in memoriam II , for organ and percussion

Publications

• Petersen, Birger: New Music: Analyzes Berlin , Simon Publishing House for Library Knowledge, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-940862-57-0
• Petersen, Birger: The melody theory of the "perfect Capellmeister" by Johann Mattheson: a study on the paradigm shift in music theory of the 18th century , in Eutiner's contributions to music research; Vol. 1, Eutin Verlag, Plöner Str. 126, 2002; Zugl .: Kiel, Univ., Diss., 2001. ISBN 978-3-8311-3484-7
• Birger Petersen (Ed.): Musica floreat! : Jürgen Blume on his 70th birthday , Immanuel Ott, Birger Petersen (ed.) Are Musik Verlag GmbH, Mainz 2016, ISBN 978-3-924522-66-7 . 376 pages: illustrations, music examples; 21 cm.
• Birger Petersen (ed.): Reception and cultural transfer: German and French music theory according to Rameau , Are Musik Verlag GmbH, Mainz 2016, ISBN 978-3-924522-64-3 . 274 pages: illustrations, music examples; 21 cm.
• Birger Petersen (Ed.): German organ music of the 19th century: Lecture series of the departments of music theory and church music, winter 2012/2013 , Are Musik Verlag GmbH, Mainz 2016, ISBN 978-3-924522-61-2 . 154 p.: Ill., Numerous. Grades ; 21 cm.

Web links

• Birger Petersen in the composers lexicon of the German Composers' Association
• Works by and about Birger Petersen in the catalog of the German National Library