In the last years of his long life, Herbert Gadsch was the doyen of Protestant church music in Saxony. His compositions are widely used in most Saxon church congregations: Masses, oratorios and other choral works, Christmas plays, songs, wind music, especially music for children and various compositions for the organ, but also music for other instruments. The compositions were mainly written for practical use in church music. The most important works are Von der Schöpfung, Die zehn Gebote, Missa de angelis and Missa pro defunctis, Das Jahr der Kirche, Von der Sch öpfung and Te Deum.

Many of his works had already been published before 1989. Gadsch himself helped with this as editor. Almost 100 printed music editions of works by Herbert Gadsch can be found in the SLUB catalogue. That is about one third of his printed compositions. All of the composer's printed music is held by the Deutsches Musikarchiv Leipzig.

Since 2002, the music department of the SLUB has received composition autographs and copies in several stages. The materials handed over thus formed the Gadsch estate, regulated by a donation contract. Since 2011, a large part of the estate of the now deceased Herbert Gadsch has been at the SLUB. Ms Ruth Kemna, a student at the Dresden College of Church Music, compiled a "catalogue raisonné" based on Herbert Gadsch's estate, which had not yet been catalogued but had been inventoried, as part of her diploma thesis published in 2012. In March 2013, the work appeared in Qucosa, the Saxon document and publication server, in time for Herbert Gadsch's 100th birthday on 7 April 2013.