Heinz Werner Zimmermann

Heinz Werner Zimmermann (11 August 1930 – 25 January 2022) was a German composer, focused on contemporary sacred music. He was professor of composition at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and held several honorary doctorates from the Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, U.S., and from Leipzig University. He is known for church music influenced by jazz, such as motets for choir with plucked bass.

Life

Zimmermann was born in Freiburg im BreisgauTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and had his first composition instruction from 1946 to 1948 with Julius Weismann.Template:Sfn He studied from 1950 to 1954 at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg (Institute for Church Music) in Heidelberg, with Wolfgang Fortner.Template:Sfn After passing his examinations at the Freiburg Conservatory, supervised by Harald Genzmer, he became Fortner's successor in Heidelberg immediately.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Here he maintained close contacts with the musicologist Thrasybulos Georgiades, whose rhythm and language studies influenced him the most, along with his occupation with American spirituals and jazz.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Gedenktafel Schönwalder Allee 26 (Haken) Heinrich Schütz Haus.jpg

Memorial plaque for the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule

From 1963 to 1976, Zimmermann was director of the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau school of church music) in Spandau,Template:Sfn and then from 1975 to 1996 as successor to Kurt HessenbergTemplate:Sfn as composition teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Personal life

Zimmermann was married to the organist Renate Zimmermann.Template:Sfn They lived in Oberursel,Template:Sfn where he died on 25 January 2022, at the age of 91.Template:Sfn

Works

Zimmermann's best-known works are his sacred motets with plucked double bass, his organ psalms, and his "Prosalieder".Template:Sfn One of his chief works is the Missa profana which he created over 15 years,Template:Sfn set for a vocal quartet, choir, dixieland jazz band, tape, and large orchestra.Template:Sfn Completed in 1980, it was premiered in Minneapolis in 1981.Template:Sfn Others are the sacred oratorio The Bible of Spirituals, Te Deum, and Symphonia sacra.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His Don-Giovanni-Variationen for orchestra premiered in Frankfurt in 2020.Template:Sfn

Awards

Amongst other honours, Zimmermann was awarded the Music Prizes of Berlin, a Villa Massimo scholarship in 1965/66, and he received the Johann Sebastian Bach Prize of Stuttgart in 1982. The American Wittenberg University in Springfield bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate, followed by three American theses dedicated to his work, including one at the Stanford University in California.Template:Sfn In 2009, he received the honorary doctorate from Leipzig University. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Further reading

• Brusniak, Friedhelm. 2005. Heinz Werner Zimmermann. Tutzing: Schneider. Template:ISBN
• Brusniak, Friedhelm, and Heinz Werner Zimmermann. 2000. Komposition und Kontemplation. Tutzing: Schneider. Template:ISBN
• Hermann, Matthias. 2017. Dresdner Kreuzchor und zeitgenössische Chormusik. Ur- und Erstaufführungen zwischen Richter und Kreile. Marburg: Schriften des Dresdner Kreuzchores, vol. 2. pp. 84–85, 290–292, 311–316. Template:ISBN
• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• Heinz Werner Zimmermann über seine Werke und die Beeinflussung durch den Jazz (in German) Verband Deutscher Konzertchöre April 2010
• Template:Wikidata Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at DiscogsTemplate:EditAtWikidata