Stimulate performances
A foundation has been looking after the work of Emil Himmelsbach for five years. It awards concert contributions and is planning publications for the upcoming centenary of the composer's birth.
The composer, violinist and music school director Emil Himmelsbach (1914-1984) from Basel, who died 29 years ago, left behind an oeuvre of around 140 songs and instrumental compositions (see Swiss Music Newspaper 12/2008, S. 37).
By avoiding thirds and sixths wherever possible in his mostly short compositions, twelve-tone melodies emerged almost automatically. When he once submitted some works to a competition where Paul Sacher was on the jury, he was refused recognition on the grounds that it was not possible to hear and experience such music inwardly, that it was merely constructed. Emil Himmelsbach was not deterred by such judgments and said that the younger generation would "acquire a taste" for it.
To this end, Adolf Zinsstag founded the Emil Himmelsbach Foundation based in Basel five years ago, digitally recorded all the works and deposited the estate with the Basel University Library. For the coming anniversary year, he is planning to publish a biographical outline and his lecture Geistfeindlichkeit und Suche nach dem Geist im Kunstschaffen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (1977).
Himmelsbach has written his works so beautifully by hand that they can be performed and are not considered a priority task for the Foundation. On the other hand, it is in the fortunate position of being able to provide support or deficit guarantees for performances of Himmelsbach's works. Inquiries to: Adolf Zinsstag, 4059 Basel, Bruderholzallee 253; or zinsstag@hotmail.com
