MAC No. 15: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her

Herbert Collum (1914-1982) was one of the leading German organists of the 20th century. He studied in Leipzig with Karl Straube and Günther Ramin (organ), with Kurt Thomas (choir conducting) and Johann Nepomuk David (composition). In 1935, he became organist at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden where a very productive coopera-tion with the Kreuzchor under Rudolf Mauersberger started. Collum stayed there until he died in 1982.

Collum's focus as an organist were Bach and Reger. He was also an important tea-cher. As a composer, he wrote not only church music, but also chamber and or-chestra music.

His son Christian Collum is also a well-known organist. He has been living in Colog-ne since 1983 where I met him in the late 90es. We decided to make Herbert Col-lum's work available on imslp.org.

The score is available on imslp.org.