Wilhelm Klatte
Wilhelm Klatte was a German musicologist, music critic, conductor and music educator. He was born in Bremen on February 13, 1870, and died in Berlin on September 12, 1930.
He studied in Leipzig and then in Weimar with Richard Strauss. Klatte worked as a conductor at several provincial theaters. From 1897, he wrote about music for the newspaper Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger. In 1904, he began teaching theoretical subjects at the Stern Conservatory and also gave private lessons. His students included Heinz Unger, Boris Kreit, Salvador Ley, Armas Launis, Frank Wohlfahrt, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Louis Saguer and Heinz Tiessen.
Klatte was among the early specialists on Strauss’s music. He wrote extended introductions to the symphonic poems A Hero’s Life and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, as well as to the tone poem Symphonia Domestica. His detailed interpretations of the music drew ironic comments from later specialists. Carl Van Vechten noted that Vaslav Nijinsky based his ballet Till Eulenspiegel on Klatte’s commentary.
With Arthur Seidl, Klatte published Richard Strauss: A Character Sketch in 1896, the first creative biography of the composer. His studies of Strauss also informed his book On the History of Program Music (1905). Klatte published a book on Franz Schubert in 1907 and textbooks on harmony and counterpoint. In 1925, he and his student Ludwig Misch prepared a commemorative volume for the Stern Conservatory’s 75th anniversary.