Family of famous composer requests centenary stamp

THE family of a legendary composer who taught music at University College Cork (UCC) over five decades has asked An Post to issue a stamp to commemorate the centenary of his birth.

Aloys Fleischmann’s daughter, Ruth, who lives in Herford, Germany, has written to the chairman of An Post, John Fitzgerald, asking him to consider her family’s proposal. Cork City Council has lent its support to the campaign.

She said her family felt that a commemorative postal stamp would be a wonderful tribute to her father’s life’s work.

“He put up a valiant fight for the arts in Ireland in difficult times and we are determined to try and do him proud for this centenary,” she said.

A scholar of national and international standing, Mr Fleischmann was born in Munich to Irish-based German parents in 1910.

A composer, conductor and musicologist, he became professor of music at UCC in 1934 — a post he held until his retirement in 1980. During that time, he was a highly influential figure in musical life in Ireland.

He founded the Cork Symphony Orchestra in 1934 and the Cork International Choral and Folk Dance Festival in 1954, and worked with Joan Denise Moriarty to set up the Cork Ballet Company in 1947.

His compositions include large-scale works for chorus and orchestra, five ballets — including The Táin in 1981 — a symphony, and several chamber and solo works.

His major literary work, Sources of Traditional Irish Music, was compiled during 40 years of work in collaboration with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin of the University of Limerick. It was published posthumously in 1998.

He was made a Freeman of Cork, and he received the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic and the Silver Medallion of the Irish American Cultural Institute.

Thousands attended his funeral Mass at Cork’s North Cathedral in July 1992.

The centenary of his birth will be celebrated in 2010 with a range of events both in Ireland and Germany.

Cork City Council has set aside a grant and is about to set up a special committee to co-ordinate its commemorative events in the city.

RTÉ is planning a range of events with up to 42 organisations willing to take part.

And Dachau Municipal Council, in the Bavarian town from which the Fleischmanns originally came to Cork in the late 1870s, is also organising its own commemorative events.

Mr Fleischmann’s daughter has sent an outline of her father’s work and a special photograph of him to An Post in the hope that the company will look favourably on her family’s suggestion.

She said she hoped the stamp could be issued on January 1, 2010.