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Browse piano sheets by Mamerts Celminskis on Zen Virtual Piano. In Soviet times, fearing repression, Mamerts Celminskis kept his compositions from appearing in public under his own name. Even so, during that forbidden time he composed seven sacred masses, several cantatas and about 100 sacred songs and liturgical chants, and he published several sacred songbooks and Christmas song collections in his own harmonizations. A composer who wrote openly only in private, and a large body of work made during a ban, suggests how much music can accumulate out of sight. He was born in 1912 in Lithuania into a family with several generations of professional organists. After his grandfather died the family moved to Skaistkalne, where his father took his place at the organ. At thirteen the local parish priest allowed him to play the accompaniment at church services. After finishing the conservatory in Daugavpils he went to Riga to deepen his composition studies with EmÄ«ls Melngailis. A boy at the organ at thirteen who then studied with a named teacher suggests a training that began in the family and was then widened. When the first Latvian Catholic organists' school was founded in 1929, its only teacher was Mamerts, then seventeen, and from 1934 he also served as its director. As the Red Army approached, he left as a refugee, working as an organist in JÅ«rkalne, Alsunga and Aizpute until he settled in Riga in 1949. In Riga he taught at the Catholic Spiritual Seminary and in secret ran organ courses at St Albert's church, training 80 organists in his lifetime. A young teacher who became a refugee and then a secret instructor shows how often his work moved to wherever it could continue. With Latvia's rebirth, Celminskis had his triumph: at a sacred music concert in the Dom Church during the 1990 Song Festival, the State Academic Choir sang his Jesu Deus amor meus and Ave Maria, and he was admitted to the Latvian Composers' Union. On 4 June 1992 the Academic Choir Latvija, under the conductor T. DekÅ”nis, sang his works at a concert in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia for his 80th birthday. He also wrote the historic anthem of Riga's 50th Secondary School, DzimtÄ skola, with words by IrÄna EglÄ«te, a graduate of the first class, in 1959. A choir singing his Ave Maria once his name could be printed, and a school hymn in his hand, hint at music that finally belonged to its community.
Browse piano sheets by Mamerts Celminskis on Zen Virtual Piano.
In Soviet times, fearing repression, Mamerts Celminskis kept his compositions from appearing in public under his own name. Even so, during that forbidden time he composed seven sacred masses, several cantatas and about 100 sacred songs and liturgical chants, and he published several sacred songbooks and Christmas song collections in his own harmonizations. A composer who wrote openly only in private, and a large body of work made during a ban, suggests how much music can accumulate out of sight.
He was born in 1912 in Lithuania into a family with several generations of professional organists. After his grandfather died the family moved to Skaistkalne, where his father took his place at the organ. At thirteen the local parish priest allowed him to play the accompaniment at church services. After finishing the conservatory in Daugavpils he went to Riga to deepen his composition studies with Emīls Melngailis. A boy at the organ at thirteen who then studied with a named teacher suggests a training that began in the family and was then widened.
When the first Latvian Catholic organists' school was founded in 1929, its only teacher was Mamerts, then seventeen, and from 1934 he also served as its director. As the Red Army approached, he left as a refugee, working as an organist in JÅ«rkalne, Alsunga and Aizpute until he settled in Riga in 1949. In Riga he taught at the Catholic Spiritual Seminary and in secret ran organ courses at St Albert's church, training 80 organists in his lifetime. A young teacher who became a refugee and then a secret instructor shows how often his work moved to wherever it could continue.
With Latvia's rebirth, Celminskis had his triumph: at a sacred music concert in the Dom Church during the 1990 Song Festival, the State Academic Choir sang his Jesu Deus amor meus and Ave Maria, and he was admitted to the Latvian Composers' Union. On 4 June 1992 the Academic Choir Latvija, under the conductor T. DekÅ”nis, sang his works at a concert in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia for his 80th birthday. He also wrote the historic anthem of Riga's 50th Secondary School, DzimtÄ skola, with words by IrÄna EglÄ«te, a graduate of the first class, in 1959. A choir singing his Ave Maria once his name could be printed, and a school hymn in his hand, hint at music that finally belonged to its community.
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Common questions
Mamerts Celminskis was a composer, organist and teacher born in 1912 in Lithuania into a family of organists, who worked in Latvia on Catholic sacred music.
In the forbidden time he composed seven sacred masses, several cantatas and about 100 sacred songs and liturgical chants.
The State Academic Choir sang his Ave Maria and Jesu Deus amor meus at a 1990 Song Festival concert in the Dom Church.
He trained 80 organists in his lifetime, including at illegal organ courses at St Albert's church in Riga.