Herl, Joseph (1959-) | University of Illinois Archives

Joseph Herl (1959- ) earned a BA in music from Concordia College in Bronxville, NY; a masters degree in organ performance from North Texas State University, studying with Charles S. Brown and Lenora McCroskey; and a PhD in musicology from the University of Illinois in 2000. At Illinois, he worked with Nicholas Temperley producing the Hymn Tune Index, which was published in four volumes in 1998 and published online in 2000. During his doctoral studies, Herl earned a Fulbright grant to study in Germany, which allowed him to finish his dissertation, "Congregational Singing in the German Lutheran Church, 1523-1780."

In that year, he accepted a position at Concordia University (Nebraska). He wrote his first book, Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict, in 2004. This was awarded the Roland Bainton Prize of the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference. Two years later he assisted in the preparation of the Lutheran Service Book, which is currently in use with the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church. In 2019, Herl also edited, alongside Peter C. Reske and Jon D. Vieker, the Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns.

Herl is a composer, composing nearly 300 hymn settings with works published by Concordia Publishing House. He currently performs as the organist of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska and holds an Associateship and Choir Master certifications from the American Guild of Organists.