During my time as a cantor in Freiburg and later in Würzburg, my works for the human voice focussed on the composition of a large number of liturgical motets, chorales and hymns, whereby - not least - the personal contacts with the cathedral conductors Franz Stemmer (Freiburg i.Br.), Franz Fleckenstein and Siegfried Koesler (Würzburg) must be mentioned, who repeatedly commissioned me to write music for their choirs and also to design new chants for the liturgy.

Bertold Hummel 1998

 

From 1948, Franz Stemmer was a lecturer in Catholic church music at the newly founded College of Music in Freiburg. It was there that he must have met Bertold Hummel. He was an important patron of the young composer and premiered his Missa brevis op. 5a at the Donaueschingen Music Festival on 12 October 1952. Two weeks later, on 27 October 1952, he organised a sacred concert in Freiburg Minster, at which only sacred works by the 27-year-old composer were performed. Stemmer also gave him the financially attractive commission to compose around 400 new organ movements for the new organ book MAGNIFICAT of the diocese of Freiburg im Breisgau (1960). In order to make these as practical as possible, Stemmer and Hummel spent some time together attending church services in the neighbourhood of Freiburg and gaining an impression of the skills of the organists, most of whom were amateurs.

Works premiered by Franz Stemmer

Missa brevis for choir and wind instruments op. 5a

Offertorium for mixed choir and winds op. 5b

De profundis for alto and woodwinds op. 5c

Offenbarung neuer Lebens for alto solo, choir and chamber orchestra op. 8

 

Biography

Stemmer Franz, cathedral conductor. Born 28 Nov. 1898 in Heudorf (Hegau); ordained 5 Apr. 1925; vicar in Gaggenau, Karlsruhe; prefect in Freiburg; studied Catholic church music in Karlsruhe; 1933 choral repetiteur at the Collegium Borromäum and assistant to the cathedral chapel master; 1934 cathedral chapel master; retired in 1969. Died 14 March 1974, buried in Liptingen.

From 1934 to 1949, Monsignor Professor Franz Stemmer worked for 35 years as cathedral conductor and choral teacher at the Collegium Borromäum, which was extended by his appointment as diocesan president of the Cäcilien-Vercin in 1943 and as a lecturer at the State College of Music in Freiburg in 1948. This extensive work in the service of Musica sacra was embedded in a devout piety that made his artistic and priestly activities a fulfilling life.

Born in the quiet village of Heudorf in Hegau on 28 November 1898 as the son of a teacher and choir director, he completed his grammar school studies in Constance, where his work as a conductor and organist as a pupil at Conradi House drew attention to his special musical talent, which he also exercised after his war service from 1917 to 1918 during his theological studies in Freiburg as conductor of the alumni choir and as organist. After several years of pastoral work as a vicar in Gaggenau and Karlsruhe and as a prefect at the boys' convent in Freiburg, this striking musical talent prompted the church authorities to ask Chaplain Stemmer to enrol in a musical training programme at the newly established Institute for Catholic Church Music at the conservatory in Karlsruhe under the direction of the well-known Freiburg composer Professor Franz Philipp. After two years of study, he passed his church music exam in 1933 with great success under Professor Philipp, with whose musical work he remained associated throughout his life and premiered some of his church music works in Freiburg Minster. In the same year, the church authorities appointed him as a chorale repetiteur at the Collegium Borromäum and as assistant to the cathedral chapel master Carl Schweitzer at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Freiburg. Here, after rebuilding the cathedral choir, he succeeded, thanks to his musical temperament and his affable and cordial approachability, in training this choir in just a few years to become one of the best in the archdiocese, whose successes at the general assembly of the Deutscher Cäcilien-Verband in Freiburg in 1936 also became known beyond the borders of the diocese.

His musical repertoire included works by Palaestina, the Viennese classics as well as the modern composers of Fr Philipp, H. Schröder, Th. Rehmann, B. Hummel and others. His particular love, however, was for the works of Anton Bruckner, many of which were performed for the first time in the cathedral under his direction. This fruitful work was interrupted by the war years and the destruction of the city of Freiburg on 27 November 1944, in which the cathedral was also affected, which meant that church services in the cathedral were not possible for a long time. An unforgettable experience was the performance of Franz Philipp's oratorio "St. Elisabeth" on 18 November 1945, when clouds of November fog drifted through the open windows of the cathedral, amidst the ruins of a city that was more than half destroyed.

His appointment as diocesan president of the Cäcilienverein in 1943 gave Professor Stemmer the opportunity to put his musical and educational talents to good use in the development of church music in the archdiocese. Numerous courses for the training of teachers and lay people as choirmasters and organists, combined with the many church music ceremonies in the individual deaneries, formed the basis for a rich musical and liturgical life for the Archdiocese of Freiburg. His appointment as Papal Privy Chamberlain and the award of the title of professor by the Baden government were an expression of recognition from both the Church and the state for his successful work in the service of Musica sacra and the cultural development of public life in the city of Freiburg.

As a bell inspector and consultant for organ building in the diocese, his particular concern was to protect organ building from the invasion of electronic organs. The marvellous ringing of the 15 bells of Freiburg Cathedral is due to his initiative. Due to his successes, the General President of the Cäcilienverein des deutschen Sprachgebiets appointed him to the Music Council, to which he also belonged as a member of the "Consociatio internationalis musicae sacrae" (CJMS) based in Rome until his illness.

The strain of this excessive musical and organisational work weakened his health early on. An eye condition, which required two operations and was compounded by a heart condition, forced Professor Stemmer to ask the authorities to relieve him of his duties as cathedral conductor in 1969.

The last years until his death were a great school of suffering for him, into which God took him after a stroke took away his last opportunities for public work as a bell and organ inspector. What made his last years as a musician particularly difficult, however, was the realisation that a large part of his work had collapsed as a result of the liturgical and musical innovations brought about by the Second Vatican Council, which he was no longer able to keep up with. The one-sided German liturgy in pastoral practice increasingly replaced choral singing in the parishes, and the abolition of Latin offices resulted in the dissolution of numerous church choirs, which he had built up with great effort as president of the Cäcilienverein.

In addition to his physical suffering, these events were an inner suffering for him as a thoroughbred musician, from which he was relieved by his death on 14 March 1974.

Professor Stemmer was laid to rest next to his mother's grave in Liptingen after a choral requiem in his will, celebrated by the Reverend Auxiliary Bishop Gnädinger.

Carl Winter (from: Necrologium Friburgense 1971-1975, Verzeichnis der in den Jahren 1971-1975 verstorbenen Priester der Erzdiözese Freiburg, Sonderdruck aus dem Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 97.Band, Dritte Folge - Neunundzwanzigster Band, 1977)