HEINRICH BEWERUNGE (1862-1923)

Professor of Music and Chant 1888-1914, 1921-23

Born in Lethmathe in rural Westphalia but brought up in Dusseldorf, he was educated for the priesthood at the Collegium Willibaldum in Eichstadt (now the Catholic University of Eichstadt-Ingoldstadt). He studied theology at Würzburg University and music at the Bayerisches Staatskonservatorium der Musik, taking a post-graduate diploma at the Kirchenmusikschule in Regensburg, and working extensively under the notable Cecilian Fr. Franz Haberl in that movement's task of promoting the use of plainchant and polyphony in the liturgy. Ordained priest in 1885 for the Diocese of Paderborn, he was seconded to the archdiocese of Cologne, where he acted as secretary to the vicar general and cantor at the cathedral in the new administration of Archbishop Krementz. In 1888 he was 'head-hunted' through Fr. Haberl by the Irish hierarchy for a contract assignment to establish Church Chant and Organ as an area of major study at the national seminary. Appointed permanently to the position of professor shortly thereafter, he would dominate the burgeoning church music scene in Ireland for the next quarter-century, working with bishops, priests and a new generation of continental organists and choirmasters across Ireland to introduce a higher standard of musical performance to liturgies. He combined this with the production of regular articles on his subject in publications in Ireland and Germany, the transposition of notable choral works for male voice parts, major inputs into the specification and building of organs, and membership of the committee of the Feis Cheoil. On holiday in Europe in at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was prevented from returning to Ireland by the outbreak of the first World War; when he did return in 1921 he was not in good health, and survived for only two years, dying at the age of sixty-one. He is buried in the college cemetery;