Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943) studied church music in Berlin . From 1891 onwards he worked as director of the organ department at the American Conservatory in Chicago and the Wisconsin Conservatory in Milwaukee .
As a virtuoso organist he had a formative impact on American organ music: even Ferruccio Busoni called him a ‘master of counterpoint’ and the greatest contrapuntal composer since J. S. Bach.
The Concerto for Organ is a masterpiece of contrapuntal inversion. The thematic material of all five movements is taken from the theme of the great Organ Fugue in E minor BWV 584/2 by Johann Sebastian Bach. The “ Canonic Fantasy” is in the form of a passacaglia, whose theme and contrapuntal inversions are taken from the BACH motif. The virtuoso “ Perpetuum mobile” for pedal solo is one of the works which Middelschulte performed most frequently.
