Gottwald, Clytus

Gottwald, Clytus, German choral conductor, musicologist, and composer; b. Bad Salzbrunn, Silesia, Nov. 25, 1925. He received training in voice, choral conducting, and musicology at the Univ. of Tübingen, and also took courses in sociology, theology, and folklore. He completed his education at the Univ. of Frankfurt am Main (Ph.D., 1961, with the diss. Johannes Ghiselen—Johannes Verbonnet: Stilkritische Untersuchung zum Problem ihrer Identitat; publ. in Wiesbaden, 1962). In 1960 he founded the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, a polyphonic vocal ensemble he conducted in enterprising concerts until 1990. In addition to works of the 15th and 16th ceturies, he also conducted contemporary avant-garde scores. From 1969 to 1989 he was an ed. for new music for the South German Radio in Stuttgart. He contributed valuable articles to many journals and other publications on subjects ranging from early music to the avant-garde, from Josquin to John Cage. He ed. the complete works of Ghiselen in Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, XXIII/1-4 (1961-68) and publ. Codices musici (series 1, Die Handschriften der Wurttembergischen LandesbibliothekStuttgart, Wiesbaden, 1964; series 2, Die Handschriften de ehemals Koniglichen Hofbibliothek, Wiesbaden, 1965), Katalog der Musikalien in der Schermar-Bibliothek Ulm (Wiesbaden, 1993), and Manuscripta musica (Wies-baden, 1997). As a composer, he tended toward the experimental, producing a number of advanced vocal works.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire