Richard Hoffmann (composer, 1925)

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Richard Hoffmann (20 April 1925, Vienna, Austria – 24 June 2021) was an American composer, musicologist and educator. He served many years as a professor at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Early life[]

Hoffmann was born on 20 April 1925 in Vienna, Austria,[1] the son of Richard and Emanuela Hoffmann. In 1935, the family emigrated to New Zealand,[2] where Hoffmann subsequently received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of New Zealand in 1945.[3]

Hoffmann went on to the USA in 1947, primarily to study composition with his cousin, Arnold Schoenberg (1948–1951). At the same time he also became Schoenberg's secretary and amanuensis.[4][5][6][7]

Musical style[]

About the String Trio, which was begun in 1961 (Altmünster, Austria) and, after approximately a year's interruption, completed in 1963 (Los Angeles, California) the composer wrote:

The piece is in a single movement (approximately 15 minutes). The kaleidoscopic treatment of the musical substance in detail (fragmentation, juxtaposition, rotation); the confluence of a number of coequal contrasting sections (elision, dovetailing); the interaction of disparate elements; rhythmic dissonance; conflicting dynamics (even with sustained sonorities); the notation of each instrument on three staves (upper: sul ponticello or sul tasto, the middle: arco, the lower: pizzicato or col legno), and localized accelerandi and ritardandi – all are designed to create the maximum possible illusion of multidimensional movement and to emulate in sound the inherently unstable characteristics of a mobile. This is done without recourse to the arbitrariness and forced spontaneity of improvisation, but rather, within the paradoxical framework of rigid control and matrix-like construction.[8]

Teaching career[]

Hoffmann began his career as a professor at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1954, where he worked until 2004. He was a visiting professor at the University of California in Berkeley from 1965 to 1966,[9] at Victoria University in 1968, at Harvard University in 1970, at the University of Iowa in 1976 and at Vienna University in 1984.[citation needed]

Achievements[]

Hoffmann received awards from the Fromm Music Foundation Commission in 1960[10] and National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1966. Also he was given a grant from National Education Association in 1976, 1978–1979 and Fulbright Foundation in 1984-1985.[citation needed]

Personal life[]

On December 21, 1957 Richard Hoffmann married Joan Alfhild Flint. They have 3 children, Paul, Anna and Peter.

Compositions[]

  • Orchestral

Prelude and Double Fugue, strings, 1944
Violin Concerto, 1948
Orchestral Piece, 1952
Piano Concerto, 1953-4 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Cello Concerto, 1956-9 - Mobart Music Publications MOB 8540/Schott
Orchestral Piece [no. 2], 1961, publ. Universal Edition, London (1963), UE13635LW
Music for Strings, for solo violin and string orchestra, 1970-71 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Souffleur, for symphony orchestra without conductor, 1975-6

  • Vocal

3 Songs (R.M. Rilke), 1948
3 Songs (Rilke, J. Haringer), S. pf, 1950
2 Songs (M. Maeterlink, E. St Vincent Millay), S, pf, 1953-4
Mutterauge (trad,), chorus, 1956
Memento mori (grave stone inscriptions), men's 48vv, tape, 1966-9
Les adieux (R. Hoffmann), chorus, orch, 1980-3
2 Poems (A. Giraud), 1v. fl + pic, b cl, von, va, vc, pf, 1986
Lacrymosa '91 (H. Heine), chorus, orch, 1990
2 Songs (F. Rückert, Heine), S, str trio, percussion, 1990 [arr. chamber orchestra, 1991]
Die Heimkehr (G. Trakl), 1v, double chorus, orch, 1997

  • Chamber and solo

String Quartet no. 1, 1947
Trio, violin, bass clarinet, piano, 1948
Duo, viola and cello, 1949 - Mobart Music Publications MOB 8550/Schott
Duo, violin and piano, 1949, rev. 1965 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Piano Quartet, 1950
String Quartet no. 2, 1950
Tripartita, solo violin, 1950
String Trio, 1961-63
Decadanse, for clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass, and percussion, 1972 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
String Quartet no. 3 'on revient toujours', 1972-4 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Changes, for two sets of chimes, four players, 1974 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Notturno [String Quartet no. 5], double string quartet, 1995
String Quartet no. 6 'Anbruch-Einbruch-Abbruch', 1999

  • Keyboard

Sonata, piano, 1945-6
3 Small Pieces, piano, 1947
Fantasy and Fugue in Memoriam Arnold Schoenberg, organ, 1951 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Variations no. 1, piano, 1951
Sonatina, piano, 1952
Passacaglia, organ, 1953 - Mobart Music Publications/Schott
Variations no. 2, piano, 1959 - Mobart Music Publications MOB 8585/Schott
MONO/POLY, piano, 1994 (first performance Pasadena, 13 September 1994, by Leonard Stein)

  • Electroacoustic

In memoriam patris, tape, 1976
String Quartet no.4 '(scordatura - trompe l'oreille)', string quartet, computer, 1977–78

Writings[]

  • Hoffmann, Richard, "Webern: Six Pieces, op. 6, 1909", Perspectives of New Music 6 (1967-8)
  • Schoenberg, Arnold, Von heute auf morgen, op. 32, herausgegeben von Richard Hoffmann, unter Mitarbeit von Werner Bittinger. Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne; Wien: Universal Edition, 1970.

References[]

  1. ^ New Grove's Dictionary, 2nd. Ed., Vol. 11, 596-597
  2. ^ Röder, Werner and Strauss, Herbert A., International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Volume II: The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Part 1: A-K, p. 528
  3. ^ See letter from Arnold Schoenberg, 20 July 1949, in Feisst, Sabine, Schoenberg's Correspondence with American Composers, Oxford, OUP: 2018, p. 768, also Röder, Werner and Strauss, Herbert A., International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Volume II: The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Part 1: A-K, p. 528
  4. ^ Röder, Werner and Strauss, Herbert A., International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Volume II: The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Part 1: A-K, p. 528
  5. ^ Riggs, Robert, Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher, University of Rochester Press: 2010, p.94
  6. ^ Platt, Russell, "Wrestling with the Twelve-Tone Technique of Schoenberg", New Yorker Magazine, May 4, 2017
  7. ^ Sleeve note to LP CRI 240
  8. ^ Sleeve note to LP CRI 240
  9. ^ Röder, Werner and Strauss, Herbert A., International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Volume II: The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Part 1: A-K, p. 528
  10. ^ Orchestral Piece [no. 2], 1961, publ. Universal Edition, London (1963), UE13635LW

Bibliography[]

  • Feisst, Sabine, Schoenberg's New World: The American Years, Oxford, OUP: 2011, p. 332 n.10
  • Markus Grassl and Reinhard Kapp, Die Lehre von der musikalischen Aufführung in der Wiener Schule (Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte, Band 3), Böhlau Wien, 2002, 685-686
  • Reinhard Kapp, "Hoffmann, Richard", New Grove's Dictionary, 2nd. Ed., Vol. 11, 596–597
  • Alec Leshy, "OCME honors Richard Hoffman", The Oberlin Review, Volume 128, Number 12, December 10, 1999
  • Platt, Russell, "Wrestling with the Twelve-Tone Technique of Schoenberg", New Yorker Magazine, May 4, 2017
  • Riggs, Robert, Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher, University of Rochester Press: 2010, p. 94
  • Waleson, Heidi, "Making it New", Oberlin Conservatory Magazine, 2009–10
  • Röder, Werner and Strauss, Herbert A., International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. Volume II: The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Part 1: A-K, p. 528
  • Woodard, Josef, "Music Review: Stein in Triumphant Reading of Schoenberg in Pasadena", LA Times, September 16, 1994 (review of premiere of MONO/POLY)
  • Feisst, Sabine, Schoenberg's Correspondence with American Composers, Oxford, OUP: 2018
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