Aloys Fleischmann (1880-1964): Immigrant Musician in Ireland

by Joseph P. Cunningham, Ruth Fleischmann, Seamas de Barra, Josef Focht, Andreas Pernpenitner, Ursula Nauderer

Overview

The Irish Catholic Church did not regain public influence until the middle of the nineteenth century when most of the British anti-Catholic legislation was repealed. Aloys Fleischmann senior and his father-in-law Hans Conrad Swertz were among the fifty continental church musicians who were brought to Ireland from the 1860s by the bishops to develop Catholic church music, as no indigenous tradition of Catholic sacred choral music had survived the period of the Penal Laws. The leading figure of the Irish Revival, Edward Martyn, together with the foreign immigrant musicians were the driving force in the reform of church music prescribed by Pope Pius X in 1903. In Ireland, the efforts to provide ecclesiastical music of quality formed part of a wider cultural movement emanating from a growing awareness and appreciation of Ireland's Gaelic heritage and ancient European links.

This biography is the first full study of one of these continental musicians who made a particularly significant contribution to Irish cultural life. An abundance of documentation concerning Fleischmann senior's career has survived, which makes it possible to present an authoritative account of his richly varied professional life and to illuminate the cultural and social context in which he worked. His music is assessed by Séamas de Barra, with an annotated catalogue of the compositions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859184622
Publisher:	Cork University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2010
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Joseph P. Cunningham is an accountant by profession, and served as assistant organist and choirmaster to Fleischmann.

Ruth Fleischmann was lecturer in the English Department of the University of Bielefeld (Germany) and Dean of Studies of her faculty.

Séamas de Barra is a composer and musicologist.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Preface Joseph Cunningham ix

Preface Ruth Fleischmann xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Youth in Dachau 1880-1906 11

Supplements

The Dachau school of music for orchestral instruments of 1905 Andreas Pernpeintner 48

Nativity plays in Dachau Josef Focht 53

Aloys Fleischmann's home town Dachau Ursula K. Nauderer 58

Chapter 2 The First Years in Cork 1906-1914 64

Chapter 3 Internment during the First World War 112

Chapter 4 Life in the Free State 1920-34 131

Chapter 5 Handing on the Torch 1934-64 198

The music of Aloys Georg Fleischmann Séamas de Barra 269

Appendices

1 Aloys Georg Fleischmann: an annotated catalogue of compositions Séamas de Barra 315

2 Cathedral Choir Members in Fleischmann's Time 356

Notes and references 359

Bibliography 387

Index 395