Bernhard Hemmerle

Bernhard Hemmerle (born December 25, 1949 in Herschbach , Unterwesterwald) is a German church musician , composer and local researcher .

Life

First musical training and studies

Bernhard Hemmerle received piano lessons from the age of five and organ lessons from the age of nine. In 1961, church music director Arnold Freistühler became his teacher in Wirges . Hemmerle later undertook additional piano studies with the pianist Anneliese Hasselmann in Dierdorf . From 1961 B. Hemmerle took over the organ playing at church services in Herschbach and was involved in the design of church services for the church choir Cäcilia Herschbach and for church choirs in neighboring towns in the performance of orchestral masses and other choral works in church services and concerts.

From 1968 to 1972 Hemmerle studied Catholic church music and private music (teacher for piano and organ) at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main . During his studies he was organist at St. Johannes in Frankfurt-Unterliederbach, and also as a teacher (basic musical training, piano, recorder) at the youth music school in Frankfurt, as a music teacher and head of the school choir at the Albrecht-Dürer-School in Frankfurt-Sossenheim, as well as working as a choir director.

He gained experience in organ building through regular internships with organ builder Heinrich Wilhelm Voigt, the owner of the organ building company Heinrich Voigt in Frankfurt-Unterliederbach .

Work as a church musician in the Diocese of Limburg

After working for one year as organist and choirmaster at St. Ignatius in Frankfurt (1974), he took up the full-time church music position at St. Peter and Paul in Villmar on January 15, 1975 , which he held until October 1994. From 1975 to 1988, Bernhard Hemmerle was also district cantor in the Limburg church district of the Limburg diocese (including training for part-time church musicians), as well as a member of the specialist commission for choral conducting in the Limburg diocese and the Church Music and Youth Care Working Group in the Limburg diocese (NGL).

From 1985 to mid-1988 he worked as an assistant to the bell expert at the time in the Diocese of Limburg - church music director Hubert Foersch - before becoming a member of the management of the Church Music Department (RKM) of the Diocese of Limburg. When he was appointed church music director on January 1, 1989, he was appointed deputy head of the church music department in the Limburg diocese. On September 1, 1991, KMD Bernhard Hemmerle was appointed head of the church music department in the Limburg diocese, which he headed until he retired in June 2007.

Supra-diocesan tasks

From the various supra-diocesan tasks of Hemmerle, who was appointed "Music Director" by the Association of German Professional Choir Directors in 1978, the following should be mentioned:

1988–2007 member of the "Conference of the Heads of Catholic Church Music Training Centers in Germany" (KdL) - from 1989 to 1992 Bernhard Hemmerle was also a member of the board of the KdL and at the same time head of the “C-Training” working group. From 1991 (founding) to 2007, Bernhard Hemmerle was a member of the "Working Group of Directors of Catholic Offices / Divisions for Church Music of the German Dioceses" (AGÄR). From 1991 to 2007 he was the representative of the Diocese of Limburg in the A church music exams at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Hemmerle represented the Diocesan Cecilia Association of Limburg (DCV Limburg) in the General Cecilia Association for Germany (ACV) from 2000 to 2007. He also represented the church music department in the Limburg diocese in the State Music Council of Hesse and temporarily in the State Music Council of Rhineland-Palatinate for several years. Until his end of service in June 2007, KMD Hemmerle was also in charge of developing the Limburg diocesan portion of the new praise for God (GL).

Composer and author

Compositions

During his time as an active church musician, Bernhard Hemmerle wrote numerous practice-oriented choral works. His compositional work expanded after retiring, as Hemmerle was now also able to fulfill the inquiries and composition commissions of various choirs and instrumental ensembles. Many choral works have been published by various music publishers in Germany and the USA, and numerous compositions have appeared as private prints. A number of recordings of his choral and instrumental works have been published on CD and DVD and broadcast on radio and television. Various recordings of his works are also available on YouTube .

The catalog of works currently comprises over 400 titles (choral works, solo singing, organ works, works for brass quartet, euphonium / trombone solo and with piano or organ accompaniment). The German National Library - MusikArchiv - has over 350 compositions and arrangements by Bernhard Hemmerle.

Publications

Hemmerle has written over 250 articles and contributions on church music, especially church music in the Diocese of Limburg, the areas of bells and organ building, regional history and local history, which have appeared in various specialist books and journals, periodicals, encyclopedias and in the press. Particularly noteworthy are his numerous contributions to the Biographical-Bibliographical Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) and the lexicon compiled by him and continued until October 2015 in the service of sacred music ( L exikon K irchen M usic in B istum L imburg). The KMBL lexicon was deliberately designed as an Internet lexicon and also contains numerous personal portraits of church musicians from the areas of today's Limburg diocese that formerly belonged to the dioceses of Mainz and Trier. The lexicon is an important contribution to the history of church music in the Limburg diocese. A printed copy of the final version of the KMBL lexicon is available in the German National Library and in the RheinMain University and State Library.

literature

• Beckmann, Klaus, Repertorium Orgelmusik 1150–2000 / A Bio - bibliographical Index of Organ Music / Catalog bio - biographique de Musique d´ Orgue Band / Volume I, Organ solo, Organ solo, Organ suel, Mainz 2003, p. 374
• Dohr, Walter J., Compendium of German Lied and Choral Composers of the 20th / 21st Century, 1st Edition 2003, 5th Extended Edition 2005; - Kürschner's Musicians Handbook 2006, 5th Edition, Munich 2006
• Klassika, the German-language classical pages, composers (www.klassika.de)
• Catalog of selected chorale arrangements for the melodies of God's praise, main part and Limburg diocesan part, Dr. J. Butz MV, 1989
• A Directory of Composers for Organ, by Dr. John Henderson, 2007 edition.

Web links

• Works by and about Bernhard Hemmerle in the catalog of the German National Library