Heinrich Fleischer, noted organist and teacher, died on February 28 in Crystal, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb, at the age of 93. The cause of death was the result of respiratory complications following the flu. At his death, Dr. Fleischer was Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota.
Heinrich Fleischer was born April 1, 1912, in Eisenach, Germany. A direct descendant of Martin Luther, he studied at the same Latin school where both Luther and J. S. Bach had earlier attended. Fleischer’s keyboard instructors were Rudolf Mauersberger in Eisenach and Michael Schneider in Weimar. Thereafter he studied with Karl Straube, the Thomaskantor, who was the preeminent German organist and teacher of his time. In 1937, at age 25, Fleischer was called back by Straube to join the Leipzig Academy organ faculty. At the same time he became university organist at the historic Paulinerkirche, where he played a series of three inaugural recitals to critical acclaim. During the period of his Leipzig appointments, he was active as editor, lecturer at church and musicological conferences, and choral conductor. He received his Ph.D. in musicology from Leipzig University in 1939 with a dissertation on the 18th-century Dresden composer, Christlieb Siegmund Binder.
In 1941, during World War II, Fleischer was drafted into the German Army. He served in the Signal Corps in the Soviet Union until 1943, when a severe auto accident ended his military service.
In 1948 Fleischer left Leipzig and found asylum in Ravensburg, West Germany. A short time later he moved to America, and in 1949 accepted a visiting professorship at Valparaiso University. While still teaching at Valparaiso, he became university organist at Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. His recitals at the chapel, played on the large E. M. Skinner organ, were well received. Perhaps a high point was reached with his performance of Bach’s Clavierübung III, a work that in the 1950s was infrequently played in its entirety.
Fleischer became a United States citizen in 1957. In America, Fleischer’s professional life was marked by an even greater activity than that of his German period. He published a number of annotated practical editions of 17th- and 18th-century organ masters, and launched the popular and influential Parish Organist series. With Valparaiso, Chicago, and later Minneapolis as his home base, he became a prolific concertizing organist, touring the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico north into Canada, presenting hundreds of organ recitals. In addition, he refined and deepened his approach to the performance of Bach, Reger, and contemporary composers such as Johann Nepomuk David. An unpublished Organ Method, which explores organ technique in new and valuable directions, attests to his pedagogical wisdom and acumen.
Fleischer’s tenure at the University of Minnesota covered the years from 1959–82. Significant performances during this time included Reger’s op. 73 and Bach’s Art of Fugue (unpublished edition), both of which he repeated in various venues throughout the country. Together with his teaching and duties as university organist, Fleischer held church organist positions at Grace University Lutheran Church and later, after 1968, at the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis.
In 1990, during his retirement years, the Heinrich Fleischer Collection was established in the Martin Luther College Library, New Ulm, Minnesota. Here can be found his books, annotated performing scores, recital programs and reviews, unpublished writings, and other materials related to his life and career. Prominent items in the collection include Heinrich Fleischer: the Organist’s Calling and the Straube Tradition, a University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation, 1989, by Kathryn Schenk; and Perspectives on Organ Playing and Musical Interpretation: A Festschrift for Heinrich Fleischer at 90, published in 2002 by a committee of former students (available from the Organ Historical Society).
Heinrich Fleischer’s professional life reveals a man who understood the rich heritage into which he had been born, and who was able to transform it into a viable and living legacy. It is a testimony to his memory that today his students, and, in turn, their students, are adhering to his teaching and performance goals, and are actively championing excellence in the art of organ playing.
Heinrich Fleischer is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Monica and Eugene Kelly, and two granddaughters, Mia and Amy, of Plymouth, Minnesota; his son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Virginia Fleischer of Pass Christian, Mississippi; and his brother, Konrad Fleischer, together with a nephew and grandnephew, as well as nieces and grandnieces, all living in Germany.
—Ames Anderson
Bruce Backer
Charles Luedtke
