Heinz Werner Zimmermann
{{Short description|German composer (1930–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Heinz Werner Zimmermann
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1930|08|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Germany
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|01|25|1930|08|11|df=y}}
| death_place = Oberursel, Hesse, Germany
| education = {{plainlist|
}}
| occupation = {{plainlist|
- Composer
- Academic teacher
}}
| organizations = {{plainlist|
- Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg
- Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule
- Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts
}}
| awards = {{plainlist|
- Villa Massimo
- Honorary doctorate from the Wittenberg University in Springfield
}}
}}
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 Breisgau{{sfn|Holze|2022}}{{sfn|Anon.|2018}} and had his first composition instruction from 1946 to 1948 with Julius Weismann.{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} He studied from 1950 to 1954 at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg (Institute for Church Music) in Heidelberg, with Wolfgang Fortner.{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} After passing his examinations at the Freiburg Conservatory, supervised by Harald Genzmer, he became Fortner's successor in Heidelberg immediately.{{sfn|Holze|2022}}{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} 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.{{sfn|Anon.|2018}}{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}}
File:Gedenktafel Schönwalder Allee 26 (Haken) Heinrich Schütz Haus.jpg]]
From 1963 to 1976, Zimmermann was director of the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau school of church music) in Spandau,{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} and then from 1975 to 1996 as successor to Kurt Hessenberg{{sfn|Brusniak|2001}} as composition teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.{{sfn|Holze|2022}}{{sfn|Anon.|2018}}
= Personal life =
Zimmermann was married to the organist Renate Zimmermann.{{sfn|Brusniak|2001}} They lived in Oberursel,{{sfn|Anon.|2018}} where he died on 25 January 2022, at the age of 91.{{sfn|Holze|2022}}{{cite web |title=Traueranzeige | newspaper = Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung | url = https://trauer-rheinmain.de/traueranzeige/heinz-werner-zimmermann | date = 29 January 2022 |access-date= 30 January 2022|language=de}}
Works
Zimmermann's best-known works are his sacred motets with plucked double bass, his organ psalms, and his "Prosalieder".{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} One of his chief works is the Missa profana which he created over 15 years,{{sfn|Holze|2022}} set for a vocal quartet, choir, dixieland jazz band, tape, and large orchestra.{{sfn|Zimmermann|2001}} Completed in 1980, it was premiered in Minneapolis in 1981.{{sfn|Holze|2022}} Others are the sacred oratorio The Bible of Spirituals, Te Deum, and Symphonia sacra.{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}}{{sfn|Anon.|2018}} His Don-Giovanni-Variationen for orchestra premiered in Frankfurt in 2020.{{sfn|Holze|2022}}
Awards
Amongst other honours, Zimmermann was awarded the Music Prizes of Berlin, a Villa Massimo scholarship in 1965/66,{{cite web | title=Stipendien | website=Villa Massimo | url=https://www.villamassimo.de/de/stipendiaten | language=de | access-date=11 August 2021}} and he received the Johann Sebastian Bach Prize of Stuttgart in 1982.{{cite web | title=Zimmermann, Heinz Werner | website=Merseburger Verlag| date=11 August 2021 | url=https://merseburger.de/autor/zimmermann-heinz-werner/ | language=de | access-date=11 August 2021}} 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.{{sfn|Edition Gravis|n.d.}} In 2009, he received the honorary doctorate from Leipzig University.{{cite web | title=Ehrenpromotion für Prof. Heinz Werner Zimmermann |publisher=Leipzig University| date=12 June 2009 | url=https://www.uni-leipzig.de/newsdetail/artikel/ehrenpromotion-fuer-prof-heinz-werner-zimmermann-2009-06-12 | language=de | access-date=30 January 2022}} In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.{{cite web | title=Verdienter Komponist geehrt | website=Musica sacra | date=30 January 2022 | url=https://www.musica-sacra-online.de/module.php5?mod=register&fid=11&id=13572 | language=de | access-date=30 January 2022}}
References
= Citations =
{{reflist|30em}}
= Cited sources =
- {{cite news
| author=Anon.
| title=Zur Person / Ein Komponist von Weltrang
| newspaper = Frankfurter Neue Presse
| date = 17 December 2018
| url = https://www.fnp.de/lokales/hochtaunus/person-komponist-weltrang-10876227.html
| language = de
| access-date = 19 March 2024
}}
- {{cite Grove
| last = Brusniak
| first = Friedhelm
| author-link = Friedhelm Brusniak
| date = 2001
| title = Zimmermann, Heinz Werner
| id = 30979
}}
- {{cite web
| author = Edition Gravis
| url = https://www.editiongravis.de/verlag/authors.php?authors_id=120
| title = Heinz Werner Zimmermann
| date = n.d.
| language = de
| access-date = 10 August 2021
}}
- {{cite news
| last = Holze
| first = Guido
| title = Zum Tod Heinz Werner Zimmermanns: Jazziges im Sakralen
| newspaper = Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
| date = 26 January 2022
| url = https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/zum-tod-heinz-werner-zimmermanns-jazziges-im-sakralen-17754160.html
| language = de
| access-date = 31 January 2022
| url-access= subscription
}}
- {{cite book
| last = Zimmermann
| first = Heinz Werner
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_EcJAQAAMAAJ
| title = Missa profana (1980) : für Vokalquartett, gem. Chor, Dixieland-Jazzgruppe, Tonband und grosses Orchester
| publisher = Edition Gravis
| date = 2001
| language = de
}}
Further reading
- Brusniak, Friedhelm. 2005. Heinz Werner Zimmermann. Tutzing: Schneider. {{ISBN|3-7952-1178-6}}
- Brusniak, Friedhelm, and Heinz Werner Zimmermann. 2000. Komposition und Kontemplation. Tutzing: Schneider. {{ISBN|3-7952-1013-5}}
- 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. {{ISBN| 978-3-8288-3906-9}}
- {{cite thesis | last=Illick | first=Charles Allen | title=The choral style of Heinz Werner Zimmermann | year=1970 |type=DMA | oclc=26831549|ref=none}}
External links
- [https://www.vdkc.de/cms/index.php/service/musikalien-neuerscheinungen/171-heinz-werner-zimmermann-ueber-seine-werke-und-die-beeinflussung-durch-den-jazz Heinz Werner Zimmermann über seine Werke und die Beeinflussung durch den Jazz] (in German) Verband Deutscher Konzertchöre April 2010
- {{discogs artist}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Heinz Werner}}
Category:20th-century German classical composers
Category:20th-century German male musicians
Category:21st-century German classical composers
Category:21st-century German male musicians
Category:German male classical composers
Category:Hochschule für Musik Freiburg alumni
Category:Musicians from Freiburg im Breisgau
Category:Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany