Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm

1776-1822

A writer, composer, artist, conductor, singer, teacher and jurist. A most versatile and eccentric genius; born in Konigsberg in 1776. Hoffmann was admired by Schumann, Beethoven, Weber and Carlyle. He was a law student and at the same time a pupil of Podbielski, the organist. He was appointed to an official position in Posen, but his ability to see the humorous side of life, coupled with his artistic talent, led him to caricature public persons and lost him his position. He then turned to music as a means of support. In 1808 he was musical director of the Bamberg Theatre, and in 1810 he was a contributor of piquant articles to the Allegemeine Musikalische Zeitung of Leipsic under the pen name of Johannes Kreisler, the Kapellmeister. These essays and others were published by Hoffmann, in 1814, in two volumes, as Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier. They are all humorous, interesting, and some of them practically valuable, and will doubtless live long after his musical compositions are forgotten. Among the latter are a number of operas; a ballet; a mass; other vocal works; a symphony; an overture; a quintet for harp and strings; and piano sonatas. Hoffmann died in Berlin in 1822.