Goetze, Walter W(ilhelm)

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Goetze, Walter W(ilhelm)

Goetze, Walter W(ilhelm), German composer; b. Berlin, April 17, 1883; d. there, March 24, 1961. He was trained in Berlin. After working as a bassoonist and theater conductor, he had his first success as a theater composer with his Parkettsitz Nr. 10 (Hamburg, Sept. 24, 1911). After bringing out such scores as Zwischen zwölf und eins (Leipzig, Feb. 9, 1913), Der liebe Pepi or Der Bundesbruder (Berlin, Dec. 23, 1914), and Am Brunnen vor dem Tore (Hannover, May 26, 1918), he had his finest success with Ihre Hoheit die Tänzerin (Stettin, May 8, 1919). Among the best of his subsequent works were Adrienne (Hamburg, April 24, 1926), Henriette Sontag (Altenberg, Jan. 20, 1929; rev. version as Die göttliche Jette, Berlin, Dec. 31, 1931), Der goldene Pierrot (Berlin, March 31, 1934), Schach dem König! (Berlin, May 16, 1935), and Liebe im Dreiklang (Heidelberg, Nov. 15, 1950; in collaboration with E. Malkowsky).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire