Clytus Gottwald (20 November 1925 – 18 January 2023) was a German composer, conductor, and musicologist who focused on choral music. He was considered by music critics to be a key figure in contemporary choral music, and is known for his arrangements for vocal ensembles of up to 16 voices. He founded and conducted the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart for this music.

Life and work

Gottwald was born in Ober Salzbrunn on 20 November 1925. After military service and being a prisoner of war in the United States, he studied voice with Gerhard Hüsch and choral conducting with Kurt Thomas. As a choir director, he was initially an assistant to

Marcel Couraud Marcel Just Théodore Marie Couraud (20 October 1912 in Limoges – 14 September 1986 in Loches) was a French orchestral and choral conductor and organist. Biography Couraud studied organ with André Marchal in Paris where he attended the Ecol ...

from 1954 to 1958. From 1958 to 1970 he was

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

at the Paulus-Kirche in Stuttgart, conducting the . Gottwald studied Protestant theology, sociology, and musicology in

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

and

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. In 1961 he completed his dissertation on the Renaissance composer Johannes Ghiselin in Frankfurt. As a musicologist, he edited numerous scholarly catalogues of music manuscripts. In 1960 Gottwald founded the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, a vocal ensemble of 16 to 18 professional singers, with a repertoire focused on both classical vocal polyphony as well as contemporary music. They performed more than 80 premieres and first performances of choral works. Among the composers who wrote music for the ensemble are

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

Vinko Globokar Vinko Globokar (born 7 July 1934) is a French-Slovenian avant-garde composer and trombonist. Globokar's music uses unconventional and extended techniques, places great emphasis on spontaneity and creativity, and often relies on improvisation. H ...

Gérard Grisey Gérard Henri Grisey (; ; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer of contemporary classical music. His work is often associated with the Spectralist Movement in music, of which he was a major pioneer. Biograp ...

Heinz Holliger Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, virtuoso oboist, and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Clas ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer and academic teacher. Life and career Early life and education Mauricio Raúl Kagel was born on 24 December 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an ...

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

Dieter Schnebel Dieter Schnebel (14 March 1930 – 20 May 2018) was a German composer, theologian and musicologist. He composed orchestral music, chamber music, vocal music and stage works. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of e ...

, and

Hans Zender Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festival ...

. Notably, Gottwald conducted the Schola Cantorum in a performance of Ligeti's '' Lux aeterna,'' which was later used in the

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. Gottwald directed the ensemble until its dissolution in 1990. Gottwald was editor for Neue Musik (contemporary music) for the broadcaster Südfunk Stuttgart from 1967 to 1988. As a composer, Gottwald specialised in "arranging" classical music from different genres for an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

group of up to 16 voices in the style of

. He had the initial idea at a workshop of

, "transcribing" Ravel's ''Soupir'' from his '' Trois poèmes de Mallarmé'' similarly to Ligeti's use of voices in ''Lux aeterna''. In particular, his arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Rückert song "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" for voices (1985) was popularized by Swedish choral conductor Eric Ericson and has been performed by many leading choirs. Gottwald arranged works by

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

(''Die Nachtigall''),

Hector Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

(''Sur les lagunes''),

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

(''Les Angelus'', '' Des pas sur la neige''),

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

(''Zwei Lieder'', two songs),

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

(''Drei Lieder'', three songs),

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

(''Soupir''),

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

(''Zwei Studien zu "Tristan und Isolde"''),

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

(''Vier frühe Lieder'', four early songs), and

Hugo Wolf Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (; ; 13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, so ...

(four songs including ''Auf ein altes Bild'' and ''Der Gärtner''), among others. In his arrangements for voices, he borrowed lyrics freely, for example a combination of a French poem by

Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant ...

with poetry by Mallarmé in his arrangement of Debussy's prelude for piano '' Des pas sur la neige''. His adaptations of Wagner and Mahler were praised: "Gottwald has been truly effective at transferring the romantic orchestra onto the choir". His style of arrangement has been termed "re-create them in a magical choral world". In 2009 he received the Kulturpreis Baden-Württemberg (Cultural Award of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

) for his lifetime achievement and in 2012 the Preis der Europäischen Kirchenmusik of

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district ...

, for his contributions to sacred music. He was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 2014. Gottwald died on 18 January 2023 at age 97.

Recordings

As choral conductor * ''Atelier Schola Cantorum''. Neue Vokalmusik. Cadenza 800891–900. 10 CDs. * Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin, Brumel, Isaac: ''Musica Mensurabilis''. Bayer Records 100271–274. 4 CDs. * Nono: Ha venido, Canciones para Silvia (1960). WERGO WER 6038-2, 286 038–2 As composer * ''Clytus Gottwald: Transkriptionen''. SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart,

Marcus Creed Marcus Creed (born 19 April 1951) is an English conductor. Born in Eastbourne, Sussex (South England), he was educated at Eastbourne Grammar School, King's College, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford, and Guildhall School in London. He moved t ...

. Carus 83.181. * ''Clytus Gottwald: Vokalbearbeitungen.''

KammerChor Saarbrücken KammerChor Saarbrücken is a chamber choir based in Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany. It was established in 1990 by conductor Georg Grün Georg Grün is a German conductor. He studied church and school music, conducting, Catholic theology and musi ...

Georg Grün Georg Grün is a German conductor. He studied church and school music, conducting, Catholic theology and musicology at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken and the University of Saarland, and studied organ improvisation under Jean-Pierre Leguay in ...

, Carus 83.182. 2005. * ''Choral Arrangements by Clytus Gottwald''. The Rudolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood, Signum Classics SIGCD102 2007 * ''Hymnus an das Leben''. KammerChor Saarbrücken, Georg Grün, conductor. Carus 83.458. 2013.

Publications

* ''Johannes Ghiselin – Johannes Verbonnet: Stilkritische Untersuchung zum Problem ihrer Identität'',

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher. Overview The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...

, Wiesbaden 1962, DNB-451628403 (Dissertation, University of Frankfurt 1961) * ''"Hallelujah" und die Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Ausgewählte Schriften''. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1998, * ''Rückblick auf den Fortschritt. Eine Autobiographie''.

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. the catalogue includes more than 26,000 works ...

, Stuttgart 2009,

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gottwald, Clytus 1925 births 2023 deaths 21st-century German conductors (music) 21st-century German male musicians German choral conductors German composers German male conductors (music) German musicologists Michael Praetorius scholars People from the Province of Lower Silesia People from Wałbrzych County Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Life and work

Recordings

Publications

References

Further reading

External links