Helmuth Osthoff (13 August 1896 – 9 February 1983) was a Germanmusicologist and composer. Much of his career was spent atFrankfurt University, prior to which he held posts atHalle University andBerlin University. He wrote the first major biography on the composerJosquin des Prez, published as a two volumemonograph in 1962 and 1965
Born inBielefeld, Osthoff, son of the bank director Heinrich Osthoff and his wife Berta,née Tepel, began his musical education while still at grammar school, taking lessons in piano playing,music theory, score playing andmusical composition with Otto Wetzel in Bielefeld and Wilhelm Niessen in Münster. After Osthoff had taken part in the First World War from 1915 to 1918, he studied musicology,history of art and philosophy from 1919, first atWestfälische Wilhelms-Universität inMünster and from 1920 atHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 1922, as a student ofJohannes Wolf, he was awarded the title of Dr. ph. with hisdissertationDer Lautenist Santini Garsi da Parma. After further musical training in composition withWilhelm Klatte, piano withJames Kwast andconducting withGustav Brecher, which he completed both privately and at the BerlinStern Conservatory, he was initiallyrépétiteur at theLeipzig Opera from 1923 to 1926 underGeneralmusikdirektorGustav Brecher.
In 1926 Osthoff was appointed assistant toArnold Schering at theMartin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and followed him in 1928 as his senior assistant at the Department of Music History of the Berlin University. After Osthoff hadhabilitated in 1932 with the essayDie Niederländer und das deutsche Lied, he took over the music historical editing in 1935. At the end of 1937 he was appointed to theJohann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, first as a substitute, from 1938 as a civil servant extraordinary professor, director of the musicological institute and university music director. In this function he headed theCollegium musicum until 1963.
Osthoff became a member of theNational Socialist German Workers' Party with effect from 1 May 1937 (membership number 5,377,880). He was also a member of theNational Socialist People's Welfare Organization, theReichsluftschutzbund and theNational Socialist German Lecturers League[1] and was deputy head of the foreign office of theNationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.[1] In 1938, as a participant in the musicological conference within the framework of theReichsmusiktage, Osthoff gave a lecture on the topicDas Besetzungsproblem in der Musik des Barockzeitalters.[1]
Osthoff had close contacts withHerbert Gerigk, the head of the main music department at theBeauftragter des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP,Alfred Rosenberg. As late as mid-1939, Gerigk envisaged him, along withFriedrich Blume,Wolfgang Boetticher,Werner Danckert,Rudolf Gerber,Erich Schenk,Erich Schumann and Rudolf Sonner, as co-author of an extensive music encyclopaedia as part of the plannedAdvanced School of the NSDAP.[2][3] In mid-August 1939 Osthoff agreed to.[4] However, this project broke down with the beginning of World War II, in which Osthoff participated in theBattle of France as a lieutenant (reserve officer) of theWehrmacht until 1940. After the occupation of Belgium, Osthoff was stationed in Brussels and received a letter from Gerigk on 13 July 1940 in which he inquired about the state of the Brussels music collections and whether the manuscript departments had remained intact.[5]Osthoff concealed his activities in Belgium in his self-portrayal inDie Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart and wrote only: "In 1939/40 he was a war veteran.[6]
In the winter semester of 1940/41 Osthoff resumed his teaching activities at Frankfurt University, but remained a staff member in the main music department of the Fuehrer's commissioner for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP.[7] As late as 1944, Osthoff was classified as "politically reliable" in an assessment and that he was "one of the best representatives of his field".[8]
After the end of the war and the conclusion of thedenazification proceedings, Osthoff was able to resume teaching at the musicological seminar in Frankfurt am Main in 1948. In 1950 he became personalOrdinarius and in 1959 titular professor. He undertook various research trips on the history of theFranco-Flemish music of the 15th and 16th centuries. After hisEmeritus in 1964, he moved toWürzburg in 1973, where he worked on a volume of cantatas for theNeue Bach-Ausgabe until shortly before his death
Osthoff was the father of the musicologistWolfgang Osthoff (1927−2008). He died in Würzburg at the age of 86.
Osthoff's research on Franco-Flemish music of the 15th and 16th centuries resulted in numerous individual studies and the two-volume monograph onJosquin des Prez, which according to his biographer Wolfgang Osthoff is still considered a standard work and is only outdated in details.[9] In addition to his scientific and editorial activities, Osthoff composed songs, cantatas and onestring quartet.
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