Reimann, Ignaz 12/27/1820 - 06/17/1885

Ignaz Reimann (1820-1885) was a church musician, teacher and composer from Silesia. At the age of ten he could substitute for his teacher at the organ in the Wallfahrtskirche in Albendorf (near the modern-day Polish-Czech border). At the age of twelve he is supposed to have mastered all the instruments of the church orchestra.



He obtained further training at the teachers' seminary in Breslau and then became school director, organist and choral director in Rengersdorf. Mainly for his country choir did he write the accessible, romantic music which soon became known beyond the borders of his homeland. With unusual industry and unparalleled speed he composed probably over 800 works for his amateur musicians, most sacred. Much of his oeuvre, which often existed only in manuscript copies, became lost in the course of time, mainly in the confusion of the Second World War and its aftermath. In 1885 a hearing complaint forced him to give up his activities.



His Pastoral Mass in C Major (the socalled "Christkindel Messe (Christ Child Mass)", which contains Josef Ignaz Schnabel's „Transeamus usque Bethlehem“ ), more than any other of his compositions, belongs to the accessible and often played repertoire of today.