Dr. Dietrich Bartel
Dr. Dietrich Bartel received his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia in 1975, where he majored in Music History and Organ Performance, studying with All Saints alumnus Hugh J. McLean. He completed his PhD at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany, in 1982. His dissertation, appearing in 1985 as Handbuch der musikalischen Figurenlehre, has gone into its 6th edition. While in Freiburg, he also held the post of Kantor (music director and organist) at the Lutherkirche.
In 1985 he moved to Winnipeg with his wife, Jocelyn, and children, Rebecca and Gregory, to take up a teaching position at what is now Canadian Mennonite University. Professor Emeritus Bartel has served on the boards of The Winnipeg Singers, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Winnipeg Bach Festival, and has appeared in concerts on numerous occasions with these organizations, as well as with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
In the fall of 1996, All Saints Church asked Dietrich to help out as interim organist. Subsequently as Minister of Music, he was asked to rebuild the music program and the choir at All Saints, and expand the scope of the music. With his extensive background and experience in German Baroque practice and Lutheran worship experience, Dietrich brought a rich breadth and depth to the worship music at All Saints, including performances of orchestrated masses, oratorios, and Bach cantatas. He introduced steel drums to the service music, composing a setting of the liturgy for steel drums, choir, and congregation. He also ran a children’s Orff music program for many years, including summer music camps, and composed an Orff setting of the liturgy for the children to play in worship services. Taizé jazz services were part of his exploration of contemporary music in contemplative worship. Dietrich is looking forward to his 25th year of uninterrupted service as the Minister of Music in the parish in 2021, the longest such tenure of any of the past church musicians at All Saints.
Dr. Bartel continues to pursue research in the area of German Baroque music theory. His second book, Musica Poetica (University of Nebraska Press, 1997), has become an internationally recognized standard work in the field. A number of other publications followed, both in English and German, mostly with the Laaber Verlag. More recently he has been working on the German theorist and organist Andreas Werckmeister, including a translation and commentary of Werckmeister's last treatise, which was published as Andreas Werckmeister’s Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse: A Well-Tempered Universe by Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing) in 2017. He is currently doing research on Johann Mattheson in preparation for his next book: Following the Capellmeister – The Late Writings of Johann Mattheson.
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