Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943) studied church music in Berlin and headed the organ department at the American Conservatory in Chicago and the Wisconsin Conservatory in Milwaukee from 1891 onwards. 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 contrapuntist since J. S. Bach.

Middelschulte’s œuvre consists entirely of organ works. He was a “modern classicist” firmly rooted in the 19th cen...