Aloys Fleischmann (Senior)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Aloys Georg Fleischmann
Background information
Born(1880-04-24)April 24, 1880
Dachau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
DiedJanuary 3, 1964(1964-01-03) (aged 83)
Cork, Ireland
Occupation(s)Composer
Instrument(s)Organ

Aloys Georg Fleischmann (24 April 1880 – 3 January 1964) was a German

choirmaster
.

Life

Fleischmann was born in

composition
. He graduated with first class honours in all subjects.

In January 1902 he was appointed organist and choirmaster to the parish church of St. Jakob in Dachau. There he founded a choir school and a school of music, in which children could learn music and purchase instruments at minimal cost. With the support of musician friends in Munich and members of the artists’ colony of Dachau (Hans von Hayek, Adolf Hölzel, August Pfaltz, Hermann Stockmann) he worked to revive the local tradition of Christmas children's festivals, composing the music for a nativity play every year from 1903 to 1906. In 1905 he produced his Die Nacht der Wunder [The Night of Wonders] based on a text by Selma Lagerlöf, with stage design and costumes by von Hayek, Pfaltz and Stockmann. The Dachau orchestral musicians (including Adolf Hölzel) were augmented by members of the Munich court orchestra and choir.[1] The play was highly successful, was widely reviewed, even in New York.[2]

Aloys Fleischmann Cork 1907

In 1905, Fleischmann married the Irish pianist Tilly Swertz, who had just graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in Munich. Her parents had emigrated from Dachau to Cork in 1879, where her father, Hans Conrad Swertz, became organist and choirmaster at the Catholic Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne. In 1906, Fleischmann was appointed to his father-in-law's post in Cork; he worked there until 1961, when his health failed.[3]

Being a subject of

Cork School of Music.[4]

As a church musician and music teacher, Fleischmann had a significant impact on a number of younger Irish composers and musicians, among them

Fleischmann died in Cork, Ireland aged 83. Aloys and Tilly Fleischmann's son was the composer Aloys Fleischmann (Junior).

Compositions

Aloys Fleischmann created over 500 compositions, most of them unpublished, among which are stage works, sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music and almost 100 Lieder. His nativity play Die Nacht der Wunder [The Night of Wonders] made his name. It stands at the beginning of a tradition reaching to the Easter and nativity plays of Carl Orff.[6] A catalogue of the Fleischmann compositions was compiled by Séamas de Barra and published in Cunningham, Fleischmann, de Barra (2010). A further catalogue was compiled by Andreas Pernpeintner and published on the library website of the University of Munich and on the Bavarian Musicians Lexikon Online.[7]

Commemorative exhibitions

The life and work of Aloys and Tilly Fleischmann was documented in three exhibitions in 2010: In the Cork City Central Library, the Cork Public Museum and in the Bezirksmuseum Dachau (Dachau District Museum).[8]

Publications

  • Acht Lieder für Männerchor [Eight Songs for Male-Voice Choir] (Munich: Jos. Aibl, n. d.)
  • Night / An die Nacht (Wilhelm Michel, translated by Walter Henley) (London: Augener, 1929)
  • The Awakening / Das Erwachen (Walter Henley) (London: Augener, 1929)
  • The Fool / Der Phantast (Franz Schaehle, translated by Walter Henley) (London: Augener, 1929)
  • Aus der Kinderwelt. Zwei Lieder für Klavier und eine mittlere Singstimme: Two Musical Sketches. Die erste Klavierstunde / The first piano lesson; Der heimliche Klang / Trudi (texts by Fleischmann) (Munich: Wilhelm Berntheisel, 1931).[9]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Joseph P. Cunningham, Ruth Fleischmann, Séamas de Barra: Aloys Fleischmann (1880–1964). Immigrant Musician in Ireland (Cork: Cork University Press, 2010), pp. 11–45.
  2. ^ Maud Barrows Dutton: "The Night of Wonders", The Bookman, vol. 22, no. 4 (New York, 1909), pp. 318ff.
  3. ^ On Hans-Conrad Swertz see the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne website Archived 2013-10-19 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ Cunningham, Fleischmann, de Barra (2010), pp. 131–166.
  5. ^ Séamas de Barra: "Arnold Bax, the Fleischmanns and Cork", in: Journal of Music in Ireland, vol. 5, no. 5 (September/October 2005), pp. 24–30.
  6. ^ Josef Focht: Weihnachtsansingen Archived 2014-07-20 at the Wayback Machine (German). The digitised score is on the Cork City Libraries website Archived 2014-07-21 at the Wayback Machine together with other compositions.
  7. ^ Andreas Pernpeintner: Werkverzeichnis von Aloys Fleischmann (1880–1964) (German).
  8. ^ 2010 was the year during which the centenary of the birth of their son Aloys Fleischmann (1910–1992) was celebrated: Aloys Fleischmann Centenary Celebrations Programme: Celebrating the Man and his Music (Cork: Cork City Council, 2010); see also the Dachau District Museum’s website archive (German) and Cork City Libraries website.
  9. ^ These works, together with a number of others, are on the Fleischmann website hosted by Cork City Libraries Archived 2014-07-21 at the Wayback Machine.

External links