Born in Werne near Dortmund on 3 April 1863 and died there on 4 May 1943; Wilhelm Middelschulte was a German-American organist and composer. At the Institut für Kirchenmusik in Berlin he studied piano with Albert Loschhorn, organ with Karl August Haupt and composition with Franz Commer and Karl Schroder. From 1888 to 1891 he was organist at the Lukaskirche in Berlin; in 1891 he went to Chicago, where until 1895 he was organist at Holy Name Cathedral. From 1899 to 1919 he served as organist at St James’s Church in Milwaukee and taught organ at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music; in 1935 he taught theory and organ at the Detroit Foundation Music School. In 1939 he returned to Germany. The University of Notre Dame awarded him an honorary doctorate; Ferruccio Busoni dedicated his Fantasia contrappuntistica to him and called him a master of counterpoint. His work centres on strict compositional technique and on Johann Sebastian Bach, whose themes he worked into canons, passacaglias and fugues. In the Cybele catalogue an album of its own is devoted to him: Gisbert Schneider recorded Wilhelm Middelschulte: Organ Works in 1998.
Wilhelm Middelschulte
Composer
