Karl Prier SJ Dies, Here's His Services For Indonesian Music

Karl Total Prier SJ passed away (Instagram @jesuitindonesia)

JAKARTA - Karl Total Prier SJ passed away at the age of 86 on Sunday, January 21 in the morning. The Catholic priest who is also a music scientist is known to have died from his illness.

The news of the death of the man who is familiarly called Father Prier was confirmed by the official Instagram account of the Indonesian Pursuit.

"Died on Sunday, January 21, 2024 at 00.40 WIB at the Yogyakarta Panti Rapih Hospital due to illness," wrote the Indonesian Jesuit account in the description of the upload.

Meanwhile, the religious procession was carried out before the body was buried at the Maria Ratu Damai Cemetery Complex, Girisonta, Semarang.

"Misa Requiem on Monday, January 22, 2024 at 10.00 WIB at the Kotabaru Puskat Chapel, Yogyakarta and continued with the funeral at the Maria Ratu Damai Cemetery Complex, Girisonta," he continued.

Karl Total Prier SJ was born in Germany on September 18, 1937. He briefly became a music teacher in Austria, and then chose to go to Indonesia in 1964, after a novisiat in the Jesuit order.

As a Jesuit, Prier focuses on music activities among churches and higher education. He founded the Liturgi Music Center in Yogyakarta in 1971.

Prier is also a lecturer at one of the oldest music universities in Indonesia, the Indonesian Music Academy (AMI) which later transformed into the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta (ISI Yogyakarta). For 33 years, he taught subjects in Music History, Review of Music Repertoars, Science of Music, and Contrapung.

On May 11, 2023, Karl Total Prier SJ also received the Honorary Causa Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) from ISI Yogyakarta.

Apart from being in the world of higher education academics, Father Prier is also known as a figure who fights for the use of traditional music to be used in mass in the Catholic Church.