The Music of Johann Rudolph Ahle

Jacob Gramit

Name: Jacob Gramit Main Subject: Early Music Singing Research Supervisor: Kathryn Cok Title of Research: The Music of Johann Rudolph Ahle: Editorial and Performance Issues Surrounding the 1658 Neu-Gepflanzter Thüringischer Lustgarten Research Question: How can creating a critical-performance edition of the music of Johann Rudolph Ahle impact my performance of his music? Summary of Results: Having always been drawn to German Music of the seventeenth century, I found a collection of music from Johann Rudolph Ahle (1623-1673) that was largely unknown and unperformed. This enabled me to start from nothing when creating an edition and researching Ahle's life and music; meaning I could see what effect the process would have on my performance. By doing detailed research into a specific collection, looking at both his compositional style and his use of pre-existing texts and music, I discovered Ahle's seeming fascination with personal spirituality, leading to new ideas for the performance of his music. Biography: Originally from Edmonton Canada, Jacob Gramit is currently living in the Netherlands, pursuing a Master’s Degree in The Hague, studying with Pascal Bertin, Peter Kooij, Dorothee Mields, Robin Blaze, and Lenie van den Heuvel. Recently, he both prepared the edition and performed in Michael Chance’s production of Cavalli’s Giasone, and upcoming projects include Handel’s Dixit Dominus with Holland Baroque and Cappella Amsterdam. Before moving abroad, Jacob lived in Vancouver, where he still performs - most recently he performed in the 2017 Vancouver Bach Festival, and coordinated the Summer Festival of Sacred Music at Christ Church Cathedral, which he will return to run in 2018. He attended the University of British Columbia (BMus, 2012), and sang for three seasons with musica intima, a professional and self-directed vocal ensemble.

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A page from Winterfeld's edition of "Was werden wir essen" (found in Ahle's 1658 collection), published in 1845. Aside from the obvious issues of poor, cluttered typesetting, this edition presents several obstacles for the modern performer.

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