Johannes Driessler (26 January 1921 in

Friedrichsthal Friedrichsthal is a town and a municipality in the district of Saarbrücken, of Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately 13 km northeast of Saarbrücken. Friedrichsthal (Saar) station is located on the Bingen (Rhein)–Saarbrücke ...

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

– 3 May 1998 in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

) was a German composer, organist, and lecturer. Driessler studied composition and organ in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

at the Musikhochschule from 1939 to 1940. In November 1940, Driessler enlisted in the military; in 1944 he married Gertrude Ledermann. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he became a teacher in 1945 in

Schondorf am Ammersee Schondorf am Ammersee is a municipality in the district Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany and is a member of the municipal association Schondorf am Ammersee The municipal association based in Schondorf. Geography Geographical Location Sch ...

. In 1946, he became a lecturer at the Northwest German Academy of Music in Detmold. Here he began writing much church music. He left the academy in 1953 to focus on composition, but returned in 1954, becoming a professor in 1958 and Vice Chancellor in 1959, a post he would retain until 1972. He was awarded the Westphalian Music Prize in 1959; and in 1962 the ''Kunstpreis des Saarlandes''.

Selected works

*''Sinfonia Sacra'' *''Dein Reich komme'', oratorio, op. 11 (1950) *''Claudia amata'', lyric opera, op. 17 (premiered 1952 Münster) *''Prinzessin Hochmut'', fairy-tale opera op. 21 (premiered 1952 Kassel) *''Der Unfried'', opera (premiered 1957) *''Doktor Lucifer Trux'', opera (premiered 1958) *''Three Small Pieces'' for cello and piano, op. 8 *''Vier kleine Stücke für Flöte und Klavier'' (Four Little Pieces for Flute and Piano), op. 8 no. 2 (1948) *Duo for violin and cello *''Fantasy'' for cello and piano, op. 24 No. 2 *''Fünf Stücke'' (5 Pieces) for viola and piano, op. 24 no. 3b (1952) *Sonata for solo viola, op. 3 no. 1 (1946) *''20 Choral sonatas'', op. 30 (1955) *''Altenburger Messe'', op. 33 (1955) *Sonata for cello and piano, op. 41 no. 2 *''Ikarus'', sinfonia da camera (1960) *Concerto for string trio and orchestra, op. 54 (1963) *''Tripartita'' for viola and harpsichord, op. 58 no. 3 (1966) *Symphony No. 3, op. 63 (1969) 1921 births 1998 deaths People from Friedrichsthal German classical composers 20th-century classical composers Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold German male classical composers 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians {{Germany-composer-stub