Hermann Josef Nellessen

Hermann Josef Nellessen (29 April 1923 – 2004) was a German composer and conductor.

Born in Aachen, Nellessen studied piano and conducting with Hermann Abendroth at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In 1954, he moved to the GDR, where he worked as musical director at the theatres in Brandenburg and Cottbus and as director of the Neubrandenburg State Symphony Orchestra.

Nellessen was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. In March 1977, he was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the LDPD at the 12th Party Congress of the LDPD in Weimar.^[1]

From 1979, Nellessen worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. His compositional work concentrated on symphonic and concertante works. Since the 1980s, he has increasingly turned to choral music.^[2]

His oeuvre includes numerous choral works, folk song arrangements and settings of texts and poems.^[3]

• Der Mond ist aufgegangen
• Still, weil's Kindlein schlafen will
• O Tannenbaum, du trägst ein grünes Kleid
• Süßer die Glocken nie klingen after "Süßer die Glocken nie klingen"
• Sah ein Knab ein Röslein steh'n
• Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär

• Ein gutes Tier ist das Klavier (text by Wilhelm Busch)
• Es wollt ein Jägerlein Jagen
• Die Nachtigall
• Ich wollte in der Stille sein

Nellessen was awarded the Carl Blechen and the Fritz Reuter prizes.

• Literature by and about Hermann Josef Nellessen in the German National Library catalogue