Aloys Fleischmann

Aloys Fleischmann conducting Cork Symphony Orchestra (1958)

Aloys Fleischmann (13 April 1910 – 21 July 1992) was an Irish composer, musicologist, professor, conductor.

Life

Fleischmann was born in Munich to Ireland-based German parents. Both were musicians, both graduates of the Royal Academy of Music in Munich. His father, Aloys Fleischmann senior of Dachau, organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St Anne, Cork and his mother, Tilly Fleischmann née Swertz (1882–1967), born in Cork to German parents, pianist and piano teacher.[1]

Fleischmann was educated in Scoil Íte, the school founded by Terence MacSwiney's sisters in 1916, in Christian Brothers College, Cork, and in St Finbarr's College, Farranferris. He graduated from University College Cork with a BA in 1930, was awarded the BMus in 1931, a MA in 1932, and a doctorate in music in 1963.

In 1932 he went to study composition, conducting and musicology at the Academy of Music and University of Munich under Joseph Haas. He returned to University College Cork in 1934 where he held the position of professor of music until 1980.[2] In 1941 he and Anne Madden of Cork married; they had five children and six grandchildren.

When Fleischmann took up his post in 1934, the condition of music in Ireland was lamentable. Music was rarely taught in schools, there were hardly any music students, and no professional ensembles in the country except one radio orchestra in Dublin consisting of seven players. He set out on a series of campaigns which he pursued throughout his career to establish music as part of people's lives both in education and in the community.[3]

A fluent speaker of Irish and a scholar of Irish folk music, Fleischmann sought in his compositions to create a specifically Irish form of art music as previous generations had done for literature and painting. In this he was influenced by his parents’ friends Carl Hardebeck, Arnold Bax, Herbert Hughes, Daniel Corkery. As conductor of the Cork Symphony and Radio Éireann Orchestras he performed works by contemporary Irish composers as often as possible and introduced the commissioning of new works for the Cork International Choral Festival by Irish and foreign composers.[4]In his honour The Fleischmann Choir was given its name, their first performance was a programme of his music at the 40th anniversary of the festival in 1993.

He spent over forty years doing research for his magnum opus Sources of Irish Traditional Music. He was assisted by Seán Ó Riada and later by Micheál Ó Súilleabháin of the University of Limerick, who did the final editing. The work was published posthumously in 1998 by Garland of New York and launched in University College Cork in January 1999 by President McAleese.[5]

He received many honours for his service to his art, among them the Freedom of the City of Cork in 1978, an honorary doctorate of music from Trinity College Dublin, the Order of Merit of the German government in 1966, the Silver Medal of the Irish American Cultural Institute in 1976. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 1991, and in the same year was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Royal Dublin Society.[6]

Professional activities

Compositions

Fleischmann composed 55 works.[7] Cork City Music Library has digitised all the Fleischmann scores and has placed them on his website.[8] Fleischman composed ballets, chamber music, orchestral works, works for choir.

Notable compositions include:

Published writings

Fleischmann wrote 75 articles and edited the following books:[9]

Recordings

Bibliography

Centenary celebrations

In 2010 the centenary of Fleischmann’s birth was commemorated. The celebrations took place under the auspices of Cork City Council, a committee chaired by Dr Máirín Quill organising the celebrations. Patrons were Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Michael Murphy, President of University College Cork, and Joseph Gavin, City Manager. The year was opened by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. 145 organisations put on 225 events in the four provinces of Ireland and in five countries outside: Britain, France, Germany, China and the United States.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Joseph Cunningham, Ruth Fleischmann: Aloys Fleischmann (1880–1964) Immigrant Musician in Ireland, Cork University Press 2010
  2. ↑ "Aloys Fleischmann in conversation with Tomás Ó Canainn", in: The Cork Review: Music in Cork, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork 1992
  3. ↑ Aloys Fleischmann, 'Ars Nova – Irish music in the Shaping' in: Ireland To-Day, 1,2 (1936), 41–48.
  4. ↑ Séamas de Barra: Aloys Fleischmann, Dublin 2006, Chapter 2
  5. ↑ Irish Times 19 January 1999
  6. ↑ 'Aloys Fleischmann' in: The Graduate, University College Cork, Sep 1990
  7. ↑ See annotated list, Séamas de Barra, Aloys Fleischmann, Dublin 2006, pp 156–173
  8. ↑ Cork City Music Library, Digitisation Project
  9. ↑ See list in Séamas de Barra, Aloys Fleischmann (Dublin: Field Day Publications, 2006), pp 177–180.
  10. ↑ Aloys Fleischmann Centenary 1910–2010, Arts Office, Cork City Council, 2010
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