In 1926 Osthoff was appointed assistant to Arnold Schering at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and followed him in 1928 as his senior assistant at the Department of Music History of the Berlin University. After Osthoff had habilitated in 1932 with the essay Die Niederländer und das deutsche Lied, he took over the music historical editing in 1935. At the end of 1937 he was appointed to the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, first as a substitute, from 1938 as a civil servant extraordinary professor, director of the musicological institute and university music director. In this function he headed the Collegium musicum until 1963.
In the winter semester of 1940/41 Osthoff resumed his teaching activities at Frankfurt University, but remained a staff member in the main music department of the Fuehrer's commissioner for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP.[7] As late as 1944, Osthoff was classified as "politically reliable" in an assessment and that he was "one of the best representatives of his field".[8]
After the end of the war and the conclusion of the denazification proceedings, Osthoff was able to resume teaching at the musicological seminar in Frankfurt am Main in 1948. In 1950 he became personal Ordinarius and in 1959 titular professor. He undertook various research trips on the history of the Franco-Flemish music of the 15th and 16th centuries. After his Emeritus in 1964, he moved to Würzburg in 1973, where he worked on a volume of cantatas for the Neue Bach-Ausgabe until shortly before his death
Osthoff was the father of the musicologist Wolfgang Osthoff (1927−2008). He died in Würzburg at the age of 86.
Achievements
Osthoff's research on Franco-Flemish music of the 15th and 16th centuries resulted in numerous individual studies and the two-volume monograph on Josquin des Prez, which according to his biographer Wolfgang Osthoff is still considered a standard work and is only outdated in details.[9] In addition to his scientific and editorial activities, Osthoff composed songs, cantatas and one string quartet.
Publications
Der Lautenist Santino Garsi da Parma : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der oberitalienischen Lautenmusik am Ausgang d. Spätrenaissance; mit einem Überblick über die Musikverhältnisse Parmas im 16. Jahrhundert und 58 bisher unveröffentlichten Kompositionen der Zeit.[10]Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1926. Faksimilenachdruck: Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1973.
Die Niederländer und das deutsche Lied (1400–1640).[11] Junker und Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1938, Facsimile reprint with afterword, corrections and additions by the author, H. Schneider, Tutzing 1967.
Josquin Desprez. Volume 1. H. Schneider, Tutzing 1962.
Josquin Desprez. Volume 2. H. Schneider, Tutzing 1965.
numerous special studies on Josquin des Prez.
Essays during the NS period
Die Anfänge d. Musikgeschichtsschreibung in Deutschland. In Acta Musicologica V, 1933, pp. 97–107.
Einwirkungen d. Gegenreformation auf die Musik des 16. Jh. In Jb. Peters f. 1934, pp. 32–50.
Friedrich der Große als Komponist. In Zeitschrift für Musik 103, 1936, pp. 917–20, wieder in Friedrich d. Gr., Herrscher zw. Tradition u. Fortschritt, 1985, p. 179 ff.
Deutsche Liedweisen und Wechselgesänge im mittelalterlichen Drama.[13] In Archiv f. Musikforsch. VI, 1942, pp. 65–81.
Die Musik im Drama des deutschen Mittelalters.[14] In Deutsche Musikkultur 1943, p. 29–40.
Editions
Adam Krieger (1634-1666): Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des deutschen Liedes im 17. Jahrhundert. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1929.
Rogier Michael, Die Geburt unseres Herren Jesu Christi 1602. 1937, new edition: Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 1953.
Rogier Michael, Die Empfängnis unseres Herren Jesu Christi 1602. 1937 (both also in Handbook of German Protestant Church Music, 1935 ff.).
Das deutsche Chorlied vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, in the series: Das Musikwerk, Arno Volk-Verlag, Cologne 1955, new edition: Arno Volk-Verlag, Cologne 1960.
J. S. Bach, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke I/23: Kantaten zum 16. und 17. Sonntag nach Trinitatis, 1982 (one of the cantatas edited by R. Hallmark).
Legacy
Letters by H. Osthoff from 1936 to 1948 are held by the Leipzig music publisher C.F.Peters in the Staatsarchiv Leipzig [de].
Further reading
Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945.[15] S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN978-3-10-039326-5, pp. 444–445.
^ abcFred K. Prieberg: Handbuch deutsche Musiker, pp. 5057–5058.
^Willem de Vries: Art robbery in the West 1940-1945. Alfred Rosenberg and the "Sonderstab Musik". Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt 2000, ISBN3-596-14768-9, pp. 108–111, particularly p. 110.
^Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker, pp. 1996–1997.
^Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch deutsche Musiker, p. 1997 with reference to the source BA NS 15/ 26.
^Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch deutsche Musiker, p. 5057-5058, Source: BA NS 30/ 65.
^Quote Helmuth Osthoff, Entry in MGG, CD-Rom-Ausgabe, pp. –57, see also MGG vol. 10, p. 451, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 1962.
^Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 445, with regard to Willem de Vries: Kunstraub im Westen 1940–1945. Alfred Rosenberg und der Sonderstab Musik. Frankfurt 2000, ISBN3-596-14768-9, p. 111.
^Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch deutsche Musiker, p. 5058 with reference to RPA Hessen, Dept., at RMVP, 13/VI/44, Fernschreiben. Source: BA R 55/13. Page 135.