Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen

Heinrich Donatien Wilhelm Schulz-Beuthen (19 June 1838 in Beuthen, Upper Silesia (now Bytom, in Poland) – 12 March 1915 in Dresden) was a composer of the high Romantic era.

Finding Leipzig's classicism uncongenial to his more romantic temperament, after his graduation Schulz-Beuthen left Germany for Switzerland, where he taught composition in Zurich from 1866 to 1880.

Following a nervous breakdown (the details of which are not precisely known) Schulz-Beuthen returned to Germany; he was unable to compose for several years, but resumed his teaching activities in Dresden, where he lived – except for a short period spent in Vienna, 1893-95 – from 1881 until his death on 12 March 1915.

[1] He also wrote symphonic poems founded on such subjects as Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, Grillparzer's Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen, and Böcklin's painting Isle of the Dead.

He had some distinguished admirers, including Franz Liszt, and contemporary critics sometimes found his music daringly modern: however, these judgements were passed mainly on works that are no longer available for examination.