Heinrich Anton Hoffmann

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Johann Heinrich Anton Hoffmann (born June 24, 1770 in Mainz , † January 19, 1842 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German violinist and composer .

life and work

The entstammende a Councilor family Heinrich Anton Hoffmann graduated first in Mainz grammar school and then studied at the University of Rights and philosophy. Together with his brother Philipp Carl Hoffmann , who was a year older than him, he had received early music lessons from his father Heinrich Karl Anton Hoffmann and an unknown private tutor, which the court concert master Georg Anton Kreußer completed. When his father suddenly died in 1789, Hoffmann decided to make ends meet by practicing the profession of violinist, which he had already mastered well. In 1790 at the latest, he hired himself as a trainee violinist in the court orchestra of Elector Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal in Mainz and became court musician in this chapel in 1791. As early as October 1790, at the coronation of Leopold II as emperor, he made the acquaintance of Mozart , who had traveled to Frankfurt am Main for this event. Mozart valued Hoffmann's musical ability so highly that he made music with him.

Three years after the outbreak of the French Revolution , Mainz fell into the hands of French armed forces in 1792, from which the Elector of Mainz fled and now set up his residence in Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg . Hoffmann also went to the electoral court, which had been relocated in this way. In 1799, however, he turned to Frankfurt am Main and accepted a violinist position with the local theater orchestra . In 1801 he became répétiteur of this orchestra and two years later advanced to its first violinist. In addition, he often made successful appearances as a soloist. In 1811 he was promoted to concertmaster of the Frankfurt theater orchestra. In 1812 he married Friederike Stock, the daughter of a Frankfurt senator. In 1817 he became vice music director and two years later, after Louis Spohr left, music director and board member of the municipal theater. When Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand Guhr was appointed Kapellmeister in 1821 , Hoffmann retained his position as vice music director and first violinist. He retired in 1835 and died in early 1842 at the age of 71.

Hoffmann also emerged as a composer. In his first musical works he was in the tradition of the early Viennese classical music, but from 1800 onwards he was more and more influenced by a French violin school in the style of Pierre Rodes , for example . He composed string quartets, violin concertos, concertante for two violins, duets for violin and violoncello and songs, including a hymn of praise to the saviors of Germany (1814).

literature

  • Hoffmann, Johann Heinrich Anton . In: Carl Dahlhaus (Ed.): Riemann Musiklexikon . 12th, completely revised edition. Personal section: A – K , supplementary volume. Schott, Mainz 1972, p. 539 .
  • Egmont Michels: Heinrich Anton Hoffmann, life and work. Schott, Mainz 1972 OCLC 467943782 (also: Mainz, Univ., Philos. Fac., Diss. 1970).
  • Thorsten Hindrichs:  Hoffmann, Heinrich Anton. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 9 (Himmel - Kelz). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1119-5 , Sp. 113 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Heinrich Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Johann Heinrich Anton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German violinist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1842
Place of death Frankfurt am Main