Lemacher, Heinrich

Lemacher, Heinrich, German composer, pedagogue, and writer on music; b. Solingen, June 26, 1891; d. Munich, March 15, 1966. He received training in piano, conducting, and composition at the Cologne Cons. (1911–16), and in musicology at the Univ. of Bonn (Ph.D., 1916, with the diss. Zur Geschichte der Musik am Hofe zu Nassau-Weilburg). In 1924 he founded the Seminar des Reichsverbandes deutscher Tonkünstler und Musiklehrer, of which he served as director until 1933. He was a teacher of composition, theory, and music history (1925–28) and a prof. (1928–56) at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik. He concurrently taught at the Rheinische Musikschule and the Univ. of Cologne, and then was director of the Cäcilienverband from 1956. He was the author or collaborator of several books, among them Handbuch der Hausmusik (Regensburg and Graz, 1948), Handbuch der Katholischen Kirchenmusik (Essen, 1949), Lehrbuch des Kontrapunktes (Mainz, 1950; 4^th ed., 1962), Generalbassübungen (Düsseldorf, 1954; second ed., 1965), Harmonielehre (Cologne, 1958; 8^th ed., 1974), and Formenlehre der Musik (Cologne, 1962; second ed., 1968; Eng. ed., 1967, as Musical Form). His compositions followed in the paths of Bruckner and Reger. He wrote orch. works, chamber music, and secular vocal pieces but is best remembered for his Catholic church music, including numerous masses, motets, and cantatas.

Bibliography

W. Hammerschlag and A. Schneider, Musikalisches Brauschtum: Festschrift H. L. (Cologne, 1956).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire