Wilhelm Middelschulte, organista e compositore tedesco (Werne, Westfalia, 3-IV-1863 - Dortmund-Ospel, 4-V-1943). Allievo dell'Institut fur Kirchenmusik di Berlino, studiò con Haupt (organo), Commer e Schröder (composizione). Fu organista nella chiesa di S. Luca a Berlino dal 1888 al '91. Si trasferì poi a Chicago, dove fu organista nella cattedrale (1891-95), nella chiesa di S. Giacomo (1899-1919), e nell'orchestra «Thomas» (18941918). Insegnò organo nel Cons. di Milwaukee (Wis.) e dal 1935 teoria ed organo alla Detroit Foundation Music School. Nel 1939 tornò in Germania.
COMPOSIZIONI: Concerto per organo e orchestra. Per organo: Passacaglia in re min., Toccata sul tema di «Ein' feste Burg» ; vari canoni e fughe, fra cui «Kanonische Fantasie sul nome BACH» ; Fuga su 4 temi di Bach; Fantasia cromatica e fuga in do minore e altro. Elaborò per organo: Ciaccona in re minore di Bach; Fantasia contrappuntistica di Busoni... [DEUMM]

 

 

Wilhelm Middelschulte came from Germany to Chicago in 1891. He was organist at the Cathedral of the Holy Name until 1895 and then at St. James's Church in Milwaukee from 1899 to 1919 while teaching at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. In 1935 he went to Detroit to teach at the Foundation Music School. He returned to Germany in 1939. Busoni dedicated the «edizione definitiva» of the Fantasia contrapfuntistica «An Wilhelm Middelschulte, Meister des Kontrapunkts.» He must have had for Middelschulte a profound admiration, since he chose him to be the dedicatee of one of his most ambitious works. It is obvious that both men discussed some compositional aspects of the work, because the sketches for the Grosse Fuge contain contrapuntal studies based on the Art of Fugue by both Middelschulte and Ziehn; there are also two four-voice canons bearing the dedication «Herrn Ferruccio Busoni zur frdl. [freundlichen] Erinnerung von W. Middelschulte. Chicago. 16. ]anuar 1910.»

As mentioned earlier, Middelschulte is the author of the hrst transcription of the Fantasia contrappuntistica. Even though it was published in 1912, a year after the completion of Stock's version, this arrangement was already completed by late January 1911. Middelschulte also participated in the first performance of Stock's orchestral arrangement, as will be seen later. He composed several organ works, among others Kanons und Fuge uber den Choral «Vater unser im Himmelreich» , which Busoni quoted in the passage already referred to from his Bach edition; the passage reproduced is the exposition of a fourvoice fugue on a theme by Ziehn, which is provided underneath with its symmetrical inversion by Middelschulte.Of peculiar interest in the present context are two transcriptions he made of Bach's Chaconne (which Busoni had himself transcribed): one for organ, the other for string orchestra and organ. [ROBERGE, «Busoni, Chicago...» , pp. 311-312]