Gustav Graben-Hoffmann

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Gustav Hoffmann, called Graben-Hoffmann , engraving by August Weger

Gustav Hoffmann , called Graben-Hoffmann (born March 7, 1820 in Bnin near Posen , † May 21, 1900 in Potsdam ) was a German singing teacher , composer and singer.

Life

Initially cantor in Schubin near Bromberg , he became a teacher at the Poznan city school from 1840. From 1843 he lived in Berlin , where he trained as a singer with Stümer. He also studied composition with Emil Tschirch and Gustav Reichardt . From 1844 he was a soloist at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , then worked as a music teacher in Potsdam . Due to a serious illness, he had to break off his concert activity from 1848. From 1850 he was a member of the Potsdam Masonic Lodge "Teutonia zur Weisheit".

In 1857 he continued to study composition with Moritz Hauptmann in Leipzig and then settled as a singing teacher in Dresden . From here he moved back to Berlin in 1869, where he opened a singing school for women. At the beginning of the 1880s he went back to Dresden and Potsdam (1885).

Graben-Hoffmann wrote hundreds of vocal works, including a number of songs , especially children's songs and many comical songs, of which the "Five Hundred Thousand Devils" title made his name well known and - in the words of the composer - "founded my luck as a song composer (e ) ". In addition, he instructed generations of senior daughters in Potsdam in the art of singing and playing the piano . As a singing teacher, he also earned merit by publishing Nicola Vaccai's singing studies , through the writings: The Care of Singing Voice (Dresden 1863) and Practical Method as a Basis for Artistic Singing (1873).

Wealthy patrons and also some of his students donated him, in admiration and gratitude, a stately grave monument in the New Cemetery in Potsdam , which has been preserved.

Works (selection)

  • Six songs , op. 1.
    Autumn song of life (Text: Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué ), No.?
    Dream picture (text: Heinrich Heine ), No. 6
  • Five hundred thousand devils, for a bass voice, ... dedicated to all his cheerful friends. op. 5 (ed. Berlin, Schlesinger)
  • Flying leaves: Seven songs , op.6
    In the wonderful month of May (Text: Heinrich Heine), No. 1
    Consolation (Text: Heinrich Heine), No. 4
    On the first of May (Text: Heinrich Heine), No. 7
  • The Princess Ilse (text: Heinrich Heine), op.8
  • Three Duets , op. 17
    My dear, we sat together (Text: Heinrich Heine), No. 2a
  • The lovingly wounded knight (text: Heinrich Heine), op.18
  • Songs , op.36
    It was an old king (text: Heinrich Heine), No. 4
  • My peace is gone (text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ), op.65
  • You are like a flower (text: Heinrich Heine), op.74
  • Your name, O Lord, is divine goodness (text: Georg Wilhelm Schulze ), op.79
  • Three songs ,
    op.85 Stars with the golden feet (text: Heinrich Heine), No. 2
  • ? ,
    op.95.Snowdrop (text: Hein, not H. Heine), No. 2
  • The maid's song forest. 80 popular and proven songs with piano accompaniment collected and set up for aspiring singers . 2 volumes. Lehne & Komp., Hanover

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Graben-Hoffmann, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Bnin at Poznan
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1900
Place of death Potsdam