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Wolfgang (Heinz Otto) Bottenberg. Composer, teacher, b Frankfurt-am-Main 9 May 1930, naturalized Canadian 1964; B MUS (Alberta) 1961, M MUS (Cincinnati) 1962, DMA composition (Cincinnati) 1970. He trained as a carpenter before entering the Jesuit order in 1952. Self-taught in the rudiments of theory and organ, he did not study music formally until 1958. He graduated in 1957 from the Theologische Hochschule Vallendar, and moved to Canada in 1958. He produced a number of chamber works while attending the University of Alberta and the University of Cincinnati. He taught 1963-5 in Alberta and British Columbia schools and 1965-73 at Acadia University, Wolfville, NS. He joined the music teaching staff of Concordia University, Montreal, in 1973 and continued to teach there in 1991.
Bottenberg has been influenced by Hindemith and medieval music. He employs strict contrapuntal control within an expanded tonal-modal idiom but never at the expense of expressive values. The Triptych for organ and the Fantasia Serena for chamber orchestra, for instance, evince a sustained introspective lyricism. He shares with Hindemith an interest in composing for the gifted amateur, and his works in this manner include parts for such instruments as harpsichord and recorder. His interest in early instruments led him to form in 1971 and direct until 1973 the Acadia Medieval Ensemble of Wolfville and to found the Collegium Ferialis in Montreal in 1974. In 1981, to assist performers interested in playing and singing from original scores, he compiled a two-volume Florilegium Cantionum Mensuralium: facsimiles of original music prints from the 16th and 17th centuries in mensural notation with a guide for reading such notation. Bottenberg's papers are deposited at the University of Calgary library. He is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.
(http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/wolfgang-bottenberg) |