Fidula Publishing House

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The Fidula-Verlag GmbH Holzmeister is a music publisher who specializes in publications for music and dance teachers. The family business is based in Koblenz . The program focuses on books, sheet music and CDs with children's songs as well as dances for young and old, music pedagogical textbooks, choral literature, school musicals and class music.

Brief description

Fidula is the Latin name for the fiddle , a relative of the violin that is easy to build and easy to play. With the choice of this name linked and continues to be a program.

Johannes Holzmeister founded the publishing house in 1948, a few years after the end of the Second World War . At that time there was not only a physical hunger in Germany, but also a hunger for new songs. These appeared - often with a lot of humor - when the publisher was founded. It was about joie de vivre (often from a Christian point of view - in contrast to the “völkisch ideas” of National Socialism) and about European international understanding. In 1961 Fidula began producing records. Mostly they brought dances for adults, teenagers and children, children's songs and sacred music. CDs with the same and the same content have been released since 1989, as have DVDs and musicals.

A special part of the publishing tradition is the Fidula conference , which has been held annually since 1951. It offers teachers and educators the opportunity to gain new experiences. For a week, speakers give suggestions for musical education in working groups and lectures, with choir singing and social dancing.

Publishing history

Beginnings in Stuttgart

In 1948 Johannes Holzmeister (* 1923) founded the Fidula publishing house in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch. He wanted to build on the music culture before the Nazi era, such as B. the Wandervogel movement and Christian leisure time and hit the nerve of people who, after years of political-cultural misdirection, had not lost interest in making music and singing.

In the face of paper shortages and rationed allocations from the British occupying forces, the first publications looked small and the paper quality was rather inferior. Holzmeister gathered a circle of authors around him, animated them to new compositions and provided them with his own illustrations and a handwritten note image. His joie de vivre, musicality and piety were reflected in the publishing program of Fidula-Verlag and shaped it well beyond the first days. His wife Lieselotte Holzmeister supported the publishing work with her own texts on song compositions and translations of folk and children's songs, primarily from France and other European countries. With her he had two children, Mechthild and Georg. In 1991, the son took over sole responsibility for publishing.

  • One of the first publications was the Fidula-Almanach, a small pocket calendar published annually, which was sold for 50 pfennigs and mainly contained canons and cantatas. For choirs, discounted graduated prices were offered.
  • In addition, Fidula-Verlag sold a large number of song postcards with different topics.
  • The Fidel was the name of the first song sheet series (1949 to 1955). She brought children's songs, Christmas carols, French songs, love songs and the like. The song sheets appeared eight times a year and were offered individually or in bound form: as a vintage volume at a price of 3.90 DM in paperback or 7.80 DM in full linen.
  • Mosaik was the name of the song sheet series from 1956 to 1990. The booklets also had a length of 8 pages, full of old and new songs, sentences, canons or small cantatas. These could be used in many ways in schools, youth groups and for open singing.

As a sociable publisher who loves to sing and dance, who likes to have direct contact with his authors and customers and to whom he often maintained friendly relationships, it made sense to meet at least once a year in beautiful surroundings. Out of this feeling, Johannes Holzmeister initiated the first Fidula conference in Ochsenhausen in 1952 . To this day, the conference - in July or August - is a fixed offer for teachers, educators and lecturers.

Carl Orff at the Fidula conference in Salzburg in 1956 (next to Lieselotte Holzmeister)
Werner Rizzi at the Fidula Conference 2005 in Matrei am Brenner
Georg Holzmeister at the Fidula Conference 2005 (next to Michel Widmer on the left)

1958 to 1991 in Boppard and Salzburg

With the move to Boppard-Buchenau on October 1, 1958, a new era began for the publishing house. The increased prosperity had also meant that turntables supported the work in many schools, clubs and groups. Johannes Holzmeister reacted to this with record productions that have been made by Pallas in Diepholz from the early 1960s until today. In 1961 the first record "Songs from the ignition key" was released with the order number FF (FidulaFON) 1111.

The Deutsche Tagespost wrote on September 6, 1963:

In its sector of school music, preaching music, cantatas for choir and small orchestra, music satire, etc., the Fidula publishing house in Boppard has not become a big fan, but a real master. You have to take the LPs here seriously, even if they offer something cheerful like in the case of “Songs from the Ignition Key”, the first of which, “The Seated Boogie Woogie” by Hans Poser, a real hit, was a great success.

20 years later, in 1981, the FidulaFON list comprised over 100 different records, for which scores or dance descriptions were often offered separately. From the beginning of the 1980s onwards, many pieces of music were recorded on music cassettes instead of records, and around 10 years later, most pieces of music were only produced on CDs.

In 1979 Fidula also published the first edition of the magazine for teachers.

1991 to 2017

After more than 40 years, the founder of the publishing house said goodbye to the management of the publishing house and stayed at his place of residence in Salzburg, where he and his wife had already moved in 1977. He died there in 2002, his wife in 1994. Son Georg Holzmeister (* 1947) took over sole management in 1991; since 1977 he had been co-managing director. In 2012 his daughter Katharina Holzmeister took over the management. A Fidula internet shop has also existed since 1997.

In Koblenz since 2017

In 2017 Fidula Verlag moved to Koblenz, where it took up its headquarters at Rizzastraße 28 in the heart of the city.

Publishing program

Fidula has over 600 different sheet music, books and recordings in the following categories:

  • Song books & radio plays (for children, young people and adults)
  • Dances (for children, for all ages, dancers, seniors and the disabled)
  • Music education (magazine musikpraxis, voice and rhythm, theater and stage, class music, variety of music, games with music)
  • Instrumental music (piano music, instrumental schools, pieces of rhythm ensembles and mixed ensembles)
  • School musicals (for elementary and secondary schools)
  • Choral music (vocalicals & cool grooves, children's choir, choral music for every occasion)

In addition, over 20 series publications have already appeared.

The magazine "musikpraxis"

Since 1979 the magazine musikpraxis has been published by Fidula-Verlag - working aids for music in kindergarten and primary school . Hermann Große Jäger was entrusted with the publication until 1997. The total of 76 booklets he has published were and are intended to provide practical support for educators and teachers. In the following years (from 1998) Klaus Holthaus and Brigitte Schmitter-Wallenhorst took on editorial responsibility for five years, and Werner Beidinger has been leading the team of authors since 2003.

On the musikpraxis "philosophy" (by Werner Beidinger, from the musikpraxis portrait in issue 2/2007):

Under no circumstances should one neglect the playful, emotionally pictorial and body-related approaches in elementary school children at the expense of an exclusively cognitive orientation. Such categories are always added as a supplement, but do not replace previously functioning learning systems. [...]
Certain practical impulses from our contributions are not specifically aimed at a specific age group. We often try to make them applicable to different target groups by pointing out how the materials are used in a variety of ways, or the feasibility is more dependent on the children's previous experience than on their age. [...]
With the mutual interpenetration of music and movement, a central basic principle of modern music education is named, which includes both an artistic and didactic dimension. [...] One medium of expression does not act as the servant of the other, but both forms of expression enable a complex approach to individual topics and parameters. [...] They give different learning types and characters the opportunity to contribute creatively. [...]
We regularly offer individual topics from music and movement education that focus on special materials and content (songs, verses, dances, movement games, picture books, audio samples or voice training exercises). At the same time, we have and had sent a number of topics in series (e.g. pentatonic, instrument making, InFlagranti: music history), which enable an in-depth study of some content areas. [...]
Musikpraxis will continue to focus on living practical examples. A pleasure-oriented interaction should both support the musicalization of the children and help develop communicative and creative skills. I still find it appealing that we are not just a kindergarten or elementary school magazine. Our suggestions should predominantly remain applicable for both age groups, even if the approaches and the levels of design options will differ. [...]

Authors at Fidula

The authors / composers of the first 25 years include:

  • Lieselotte Holzmeister , longtime text editor of the publishing house and author of many song and canon texts (collected in the book "Weit über Land")
  • Hannes Hepp, initiator of the first dance records and author of short and easily understandable dance descriptions
  • his student Anneliese Gass-Tutt
  • Wilhelm Keller, author of the 5-volume music education series "Ludi musici" (1970–1990)
  • Richard Rudolf Klein , author of many song melodies and easy instrumental movements, for 40 years freelance music editor for the publishing house
  • Felicitas Kukuck , composer of many song melodies and easy instrumental movements, canons, small cantatas and singing games for children
  • Heinz Lemmermann , composer and editor of the 5 volumes of "Encore" (1968–2003)
  • Hans-Günter Lenders, arranger of many Fidula CDs and director of the Cologne Children's Choir
  • Heinz Maruhn: Author of dance descriptions, first for children, later for seniors
  • Hans Poser, creator of well-known fairy tale and children's songs

Newer authors are u. a .: Wolfhard Bartel, Tjark Baumann, Kurt Brüggemann, Verena Brunner, Susanne Cistecky, Hans-Werner Clasen , Swaantje Düsenberg, Martin Krüger-Düsenberg, Jörg Ehni, Ingrid Engel, Sandra Engelhardt, Charlotte Fröhlich, Uli Führe , Michel Hepp (son by Hannes Hepp), Thomas Holland-Moritz, Klaus Holthaus, Martin J. Junker, Wieland Kleinbub, Regula Leupold, Guido Lübeck, Herby Neumann, Gerhard A. Meyer, Waltraud Meusel, Benjamin Mgonzwa, Johanna Niegl (daughter of Hans Poser), Corina Oosterveen , Cäcilia and Johannes Overbeck, José Posada, Werner Rizzi, Andreas Schmittberger, Mechthild von Schoenebeck, Martin Maria Schulte, Christel Stolze-Zilm, Christoph Studer, Wilhelm Torkel, Eckart Vogel, Ute Walther, Katrin Weiher, Gerhard Weiler, Gabriele Westhoff , Manuela Widmer (daughter of Wilhelm Keller), Michel Widmer, Christiane Wieblitz, Hans Zimmer, Jürgen Zimmermann.

To date, Fidula has published works by over 160 authors.

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