ETA Hoffmann New Grove

Grove Music Online
Hoffmann, E(rnst) T(heodor)

A(madeus) [Ernst Theodor Willhelm]
Gerhard Allroggen
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.51682
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
(b Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], Jan 24, 1776; d Berlin, June 25,

1822). German writer and composer. His fantastic tales epitomize
the Romantic fascination with the supernatural and the expressively
distorted or exaggerated. As a critic, he placed his sharp mind at the
service of a consistent (if partial) view of Romanticism and wrote
vivid and forceful reviews of the music of his time. His work as a
composer, which he himself regarded highly, has been neglected but
shows a certain verve and originality. He was also a gifted artist, the
author of some excellent sketches and caricatures. His personality
and talents lent a distinctive, if somewhat lurid, hue to Romanticism
and influenced several generations of artists, writers and composers.
1. Life.
His father Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann (1736–97), Hofgerichts-

Advokat (high court barrister) and later Justizkommissar (attorney-
at-law) and Kriminalrat (counsellor in criminal law), married his
cousin Lovisa Albertina Doerffer (1748–96); they lived apart after
1778, and Hoffmann stayed with his mother in the house of his
grandmother. The two women lived in almost complete retirement in
their rooms, and the boy’s education was directed by his uncle Otto
Wilhelm Doerffer (1741–1811), with whom he shared a living-room
and bedroom. Doerffer was well educated but unimaginative,
mechanical and a strict disciplinarian; Hoffmann was quick to see
his uncle’s faults and could never love or respect him, although he
owed to him his earliest musical education and the lifelong habit of
constant hard work.
Hoffmann attended the Burgschule in Königsberg and became

friends with Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel (1775–1843), later a West
Prussian civil servant, whom he counted as his ‘most faithful and
constant friend’; from Hippel comes the only reliable information
about Hoffmann’s childhood, adolescence and early works. In
keeping with the family tradition, Hoffmann was enrolled
(unwillingly) in the faculty of law at Königsberg University (27
March 1792). At the same time he continued his studies in painting
and was taught the piano by Carl Gottlieb Richter (1728–1809),
thoroughbass and counterpoint by the Königsberg organist Christian
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Wilhelm Podbielski (1740–92) and (after Podbielski’s death) by the
choirmaster Christian Otto Gladau (1770–1853), who had already
been his violin teacher.
Hoffmann completed his law studies in July 1795, and on 27 August

1795 he was appointed Auskultator (junior lawyer) by the
Königsberg administration. After extricating himself from a painful
love affair, in May 1796 he moved to Glogau, where Johann Ludwig
Doerffer (1743–1803), his mother’s second brother, was a civil
servant. There Hoffmann became engaged to his cousin Sophie
Wilhelmine Doerffer (1775–1835) in 1798 (he broke off the
relationship in 1802). Shortly after a journey to the Riesengebirge
and Dresden he left Glogau with his uncle, who was moving to Berlin
and who recommended Hoffmann, a Referendar (junior barrister)
since 15 July 1798, for a similar position at the Berlin
Kammergericht (Supreme Court). He enthusiastically attended
Italian opera and the German Nationaltheater, made the
acquaintance of B.A. Weber and took composition lessons from J.F.
Reichardt. His earliest extant composition dates from this period:
the three-act Singspiel Die Maske (completed in March 1799), to his
own text. If the performances he saw in the Berlin theatres
stimulated his musical creativity, his visits to art galleries decisively
subdued his zeal as a painter. After passing his final law examination
with distinction, he was appointed Assessor (assistant judge) at the
high court in Posen (now Poznań) on 27 March 1800. There he wrote
the Kantate zur Feier des neuen Jahrhunderts, the first of his
compositions to be performed in public (New Year’s Eve, 1800). His
setting of Goethe’s Singspiel Scherz, List und Rache also had its first
performance in Posen; 18 years later Hoffmann still spoke warmly of
this early work, whose score and parts had meanwhile been
destroyed by fire.
Soon after breaking off his engagement to Sophie Doerffer,

Hoffmann married Marianna Thekla Michaelina Rorer (1778–1859)
on 26 July 1802. Earlier that year he had been appointed
Regierungsrat (administrative adviser) and transferred to Płock in
southern Prussia because of a well-founded suspicion that he had
been drawing caricatures of authorities in the Posen garrison. His
promising career was thus thwarted by an exile to provincial
obscurity lasting until early 1804, during which time there could be
no public performances of his music. He therefore attempted to have
his compositions printed, and in May 1803 answered an
advertisement by Nägeli, the publisher of the Répertoire des
clavecinistes; under the pseudonym Giuseppo Dori he sent off a
Fantasia in C minor, which met the publisher’s explicit demands for
‘a piano piece of large proportions, deviating from the usual sonata
form and worked according to the rules of double counterpoint’.
However, Nägeli rejected the piece, and a Piano Sonata in A♭ sent to
Schott in Mainz likewise failed. Hoffmann even entered a literary
competition organized by Kotzebue, but his comedy Der Preis (which
took as its subject the competition itself) brought him no prize
money, only the judges’ commendation. A second approach to Nägeli
in March 1804 with a piano sonata did not even meet with a reply,
and his hope of financial independence through a legacy from his
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aunt Johanna Sophie Doerffer came to nothing. He did at least
succeed in his constant efforts to get himself transferred from Płock,
and in March 1804 he was sent to Warsaw.
In the Polish capital Hoffmann the musician had to make a

completely fresh start; nevertheless, he found conditions so
favourable to his musical ambitions that he could dispense with the
income brought by his official position. After only a year he had an
opera successfully staged (Die lustigen Musikanten, with text by
Brentano); he completed the D minor Mass begun in Płock, had a
piano sonata published in a Polish music magazine and found, in the
weekly concerts of the Ressource music society (of which he became
vice-president), opportunities to try out new compositions on the
public. He also conducted the society’s orchestra (which was of a
sufficiently high standard to perform Beethoven’s first two
symphonies) and took part in its concerts as a pianist and singer.
Moreover, it must have been for the Ressource concerts that he
wrote his Symphony in E♭, his Quintet for harp, two violins, viola and
cello and the lost Piano Quintet in D. When the dramatist Zacharias
Werner commissioned him to write incidental music for his play Das
Kreuz an der Ostsee, Hoffmann saw this as a welcome opportunity to
gain a footing in the Berlin Nationaltheater, and he intended to
solidify his anticipated reputation with a comic opera, Die
ungebetenen Gäste, oder Der Kanonikus von Mailand (after
Alexandre Duval). However, nothing came of all these plans:
Werner’s play was rejected as unperformable, and Hoffmann’s
Singspiel clashed with G.A. Schneider’s setting of the same plot,
which was already under consideration by the Berlin theatre.
After Napoleon entered Warsaw and disbanded the Prussian

provincial government in 1806, Hoffmann continued to direct the
music society’s concerts, even though most of its members were
Prussian officials who had left the city. The performances were
gradually eclipsed by the concerts of Paer, who had come to Warsaw
in the emperor’s retinue, and Ressource soon gave up. Hoffmann, his
circumstances now aggravated by material need and illness,
occupied himself with preparing a new libretto from A.W. Schlegel’s
translation of Calderón’s La banda y la flor.
At the beginning of June 1807, when former officials who refused to

sign a declaration of submission and take an oath of allegiance were
expelled from Warsaw, Hoffmann planned a move to Vienna bearing
a recommendation from his colleague J.E. Hitzig. When he was not
granted a pass he went to Berlin, arriving there only to learn that
officials from the surrendered provinces of Prussia could not be
given compensation for the loss of their positions. He advertised for
the post of music director at any theatre, and was accepted by those
of Lucerne and Bamberg. Having decided on the latter, he was
commissioned to write a four-act opera, Der Trank der
Unsterblichkeit (to a libretto by Count Julius von Soden), as a
specimen of his work and was given the post with effect from 1
September 1808.
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At last it seemed that Hoffmann was achieving his goal: not only was
he free from a merely breadwinning profession, but he could also
use his status as music director of a theatre to further his career as
a composer. He had particular hopes for the Calderón opera
completed in Berlin, which he finally called Liebe und Eifersucht.
But circumstances again thwarted him; when he took up the new
post he found another director in place of Count Soden who had
appointed him. A few weeks later Hoffmann’s contract as music
director was cancelled, and it was only as a theatre composer that
his association with the organization continued. In this capacity he
wrote a large number of short commissioned compositions, including
choruses and marches for plays, additional arias, and so on, nearly
all of which have been lost. For two years he earned his living chiefly
as a singing and piano teacher, since even the small salary due him
as a theatre composer was constantly jeopardized by
maladministration at the theatre. Once again he was forced to look
for sources of income beyond the narrow confines in which he was
working.
During the time he was without work in Berlin, Hoffmann had again
made contact with Nägeli in Zürich, no longer under a pseudonym
but (after his successes in Warsaw) using his own name. A firm
agreement seems to have been reached, but despite an active
correspondence from Bamberg lasting until November 1809 not a
single work of his appeared under Nägeli’s imprint. Early in 1809 he
composed the Miserere in B♭ minor with orchestra for the Grand
Duke Ferdinand, whose residence was in Würzburg, though this did
not secure him an association with the court. He was more
successful in his contact with Rochlitz, to whom he sent the story
‘Ritter Gluck’ on 12 January 1809, adding that he was prepared to
send the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (AMZ) essays on music
and reviews of musical works. Rochlitz published ‘Ritter Gluck’ in
February, and dispatched the first works for review (including two
symphonies by Friedrich Witt) at the beginning of March, inquiring
in June whether Hoffmann would also review Beethoven’s
symphonies; the historic review of the Fifth Symphony appeared a
year later, and Hoffmann remained a regular contributor to the AMZ
until 1815.
In September 1809 Soden was compelled to resume the directorship

of the Bamberg theatre, which had been ruined by bad management,
and on 11 October his melodrama Dirna, with Hoffmann’s music,
was first staged (later it was presented in Donauwörth and
Salzburg); no other significant dramatic composition of Hoffmann’s
was performed in Bamberg during his stay. His music for Sabinus,
another melodrama by Soden, was left incomplete when the author
again gave up his directorship of the theatre. Hearing of a vacancy
for the position of conductor with Joseph Seconda’s company based
in Dresden and Leipzig, Hoffmann asked Rochlitz for a
recommendation; but the request came too late – Friedrich
Schneider had already been engaged. The wretched state of affairs
at the Bamberg theatre briefly improved when Franz von Holbein
took over the direction on 1 October 1810. Hoffmann had known
Holbein since 1798 in Berlin, and he was immediately engaged as
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the new director’s secretary, producer, scene-painter and stage
designer, though not as conductor, and was also re-employed as a
composer of incidental music. The melodrama Saul, which he had
composed early in 1811 to a libretto by Seyfried, was performed that
summer in Bamberg and in Würzburg as late as 1815, and he wrote
the music for Holbein’s heroic opera Aurora in 1811–12.
The mastering of unfulfilled passion remained Hoffmann’s poetic

mission to the end of his life; he himself hinted (diary, 27 April 1812)
at the close connection between his hopeless love for his young pupil
Julia Mark, the crucial experience of his Bamberg years, and the
impetus of his literary production. The wine merchant, bookseller
and librarian C.K. Kunz, with whom Hoffmann regularly associated,
was anxious to set up as a publisher, and when, on 15 February
1813, he proposed that Hoffmann should write for him, Hoffmann
accepted the offer, but delayed a binding agreement until 18 March,
St Anselm’s Day and Julia’s 17th birthday. The first work published
under that day’s contract was the initial pair of volumes of
Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (Easter 1814), and included the
‘essays’ which had appeared in the AMZ: ‘Ritter Gluck’ (1809),
‘Johannes Kreislers, des Kapellmeisters, musikalische
Leiden’ (1810), ‘Gedanken über den hohen Wert der Musik’ (1812)
and ‘Don Juan’ (1813), as well as a recasting of the main part of two
AMZ Beethoven reviews under the title ‘Beethovens
Instrumentalmusik’, which had already appeared in the Zeitung für
die elegante Welt (1813) and ‘Höchst zerstreute Gedanken’ (1814),
also reprinted from the same journal. All the earlier pieces included
in the Fantasiestücke were inspired by music, and in those written
especially for the two volumes (the foreword, Jacques Callot, the
‘Kreisleriana’ Ombra adorata and Der vollkommene Maschinist,
Nachricht von den neuesten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza and
Der Magnetiseur) references to Julia are obvious.
Meanwhile Hoffmann continued to pursue his musical career. An

invitation from Holbein in January 1813 proposed a move to the
Würzburg theatre, but shortly afterwards Holbein resigned his
directorship in Würzburg on account of politics and the plan was
forgotten. In February Schneider resigned his position with Seconda
(to become organist at the Leipzig Thomaskirche), and Rochlitz,
remembering Hoffmann’s request, recommended him to fill the
vacancy with the Dresden-Leipzig company. Hoffmann left Bamberg
to take up this new post on 21 April 1813. To his friends he reported
that his new orchestra treated him with civility and a kind of
submissiveness, which differed considerably from the foolish
manners of the Bamberg musicians (letter to Speyer, 13 July 1813).
As a composer he supplied Morlacchi’s Italian court opera in
Dresden with a duet for insertion into a work by the younger
Guglielmi, La scelta dello sposo, but he was preoccupied with the
opera Undine. He had come across Fouqué’s short story in Bamberg
in the summer of 1812, and had immediately seen in it an ideal
subject for a Romantic opera; Hitzig, his former colleague and friend
in Berlin, had managed to persuade Fouqué himself to prepare the
libretto. Hoffmann set about composing the opera with great
enthusiasm, but his work on it was constantly interrupted and it was
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not completed until August 1814. His financial situation compelled
him to fulfil his literary obligations punctually, so that gradually his
career as writer came to take priority over his career as composer.
His own feelings are clear from a letter (20 July 1813) to his
publisher with final instructions for the printing of the
Fantasiestücke: ‘I do not want to give my name, since that should
only be known to the world by a successful musical composition’. He
remained true to this principle – although Trois canzonettes were
published in 1808 under Hoffmann’s name, nearly all his writings
which preceded the première of Undine appeared anonymously.
After falling out with the unmusical Seconda, Hoffmann was given
notice on 26 February 1814; he was stunned by this dismissal, only
four days after declining the offer of the music directorship in
Königsberg. Although Rochlitz tried to assist him with further
commissions for the AMZ, without a regular position he found his
situation in Leipzig increasingly difficult. He produced some
caricatures, pamphlets and even a musical portrayal of a battle,
Deutschlands Triumph im Siege bei Leipzig (printed in Leipzig under
a pseudonym), which used the war and its hardships for their
subject. In July 1813 his old friend Hippel came to Leipzig and was
able to offer him the prospect of rejoining the Prussian civil service.
In his straitened circumstances Hoffmann had to seize this
opportunity, though he tried his best to arrange for a subordinate
post which would leave him time to pursue his musical activities; he
was too brilliant a lawyer for the Prussian judiciary to contemplate
this arrangement, and on 1 October 1814 he was appointed to the
Kammergericht. In Berlin he vainly sought a job as theatre
conductor, but was turned down in favour of the virtuoso cellist
Bernhard Romberg, who was to be the conductor of Undine.
Although Romberg’s efforts were considered by many inadequate
(including Hoffmann), the opera was a great success from its first
performance on 3 August 1816 until, after the 14th performance, the
theatre was burnt to the ground.
Although Undine was never again staged during Hoffmann’s lifetime

(apart from an unsuccessful performance in Prague in 1821), he was
soon busy with other plans. Helmina von Chezy had introduced him
to Calderón’s El galan fantasma; he was immediately enthusiastic
about it and asked Carl Wilhelm Salice-Contessa to work out a
libretto for him. This was to be a lighter companion-piece to Undine,
surpassing it in effect wherever possible. On 24 June 1817 Hoffmann
offered the proposed opera to the administrator of the Berlin Opera,
who, though not uninterested, deferred a decision. Hoffmann was
determined to compose the piece, though Salice-Contessa’s work
took longer than expected and was finished only in August 1818. He
claimed to have composed the opera in his head before ever writing
down a note; however, he delayed too long before committing his
ideas to paper. The beginning of a fair copy entitled Der Liebhaber
nach dem Tode was found in his Nachlass, but is now lost. During
the last two years of his life he was overwhelmed with commissions
for pocket-books and almanacs, and editors paid him princely sums
for his stories. The literary projects closest to his heart – the second
part of Kater Murr and Schnellpfeffer – were pushed into the
background along with writing down the opera which was to have
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been his greatest musical work. For this Hitzig, his first biographer,
reproached him bitterly, but Hoffmann, of course, could not have
foreseen his early death.
2. Writings.
Hoffmann’s stature as a writer on music was recognized
and duly respected throughout the 19th century; apart
from his imaginative stories which so profoundly
influenced Schumann and Wagner, his finest achievements
were his reviews of Beethoven’s works for the AMZ, which
were widely read and contributed greatly to his
contemporaries’ understanding of the breakthrough
contained in the composer’s style. In his review of the
Fifth Symphony (July 1810), he drew a distinction
between the different forms assumed by Romantic talent,
i.e. that which ‘opens up the wondrous realm of the
Infinite’, in the music of the three masters of Viennese
Classicism: Haydn conceived in Romantic terms the most
human qualities of life; Mozart laid claim to the
superhuman, the miraculous which inhabits man’s spirit
(Don Giovanni remained for Hoffmann ‘the opera of all
operas’); and Beethoven, setting in motion the machinery
of awe, fear, horror and pain, awakened that infinite
yearning which is the essence of Romanticism. This, for
Hoffmann, explained why Beethoven’s vocal music was
not his most successful and also why his instrumental
works could not satisfy the masses, who saw them as
products of an imaginative but disorderly genius. His use
of ‘Romantic’ as a term of value judgment has caused
confusion, and he has been censured for attempting to
classify Beethoven as a Romantic. However, Hoffmann
was never aware of an antithesis between the Classical
and Romantic eras; for him, Classical and Romantic were
two conceptual terms denoting respectively the
paradigmatic aspect of a great work of art and the
unrepeatable nature of genius. Only a detailed
investigation into the structure of a work will reveal that
the creative artist has not simply passed on momentary
inspirations, but has ‘detached himself from the inner
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realm of notes and imposed his rule on them as an
absolute master’. Beethoven himself noted Hoffmann’s
perception in a letter of thanks (23 March 1820).
Hoffmann’s reviews for the AMZ, which continued until
1815, mark the end of the old-fashioned doctrine of the
Affections in music aesthetics. Coolly and methodically he
distinguished between analysis of compositional technique
and interpretation of the musical content. In the thorough
background he provided in the introductions to his more
important reviews and in his essay ‘Alte und neue
Kirchenmusik’ (AMZ, 1814) he anticipated Kiesewetter’s
interest in the historical and his interpretation of
historical data according to a particular view of the past.
After 1815 he reviewed only performances for the Berlin
newspapers; in this he was well served by his extensive
practical experience as a conductor and a practising
musician.
3. Music.
In his review of Hoffmann’s most important composition,
the opera Undine, Weber (AMZ, 19 March 1817) praised
the swift pace and forward-pressing dramatic action and
had kind words for Hoffmann’s restraint in avoiding
excessive and inapt melodic decoration (though he
criticized the tendency towards abrupt endings, which he
thought partly spoilt the effectiveness of individual
numbers). Unfortunately, circumstances militated against
a revival of the opera. Soon after Hoffmann’s death a
rumour appeared that not only the costumes and sets, but
also the score and parts had been destroyed in the fire
which disrupted the Berlin production. Throughout the
19th century all his music passed gradually into oblivion,
but it again aroused interest at the turn of the century
when his writings were attracting the attention of literary
historians. Ellinger (1894), studying the Berlin
autographs, regarded Hoffmann as basing his music
entirely on Mozart and Gluck (the two masters who,
besides Beethoven, he acclaimed most often in his
writings), and tirelessly hunted out Mozart reminiscences
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in every work. Pfitzner’s vocal score of Undine (1906) first
brought a major work of Hoffmann’s to public notice, but
admirers of the fantastic tales expecting his music to be in
a Berliozian style were disappointed. Schiedermair (1907)
considered the work as a Singspiel containing arias,
romances and choruses in addition to songs, and thus as
partaking of the formal variety which marked Italian and
French opera of its time. The demonic world was
represented by the dramatic means peculiar to the late
Neapolitan operatic style; the nobility and seriousness of
tone, the striking choral effects and the musical depiction
of nature derived from Gluck; the characterization and the
depth of feeling in the music owed something to Mozart;
the orchestral prominence and harmonic peculiarities
were related to Beethoven; and finally certain
instrumental effects came, via Spontini, from Mayr.
However, Schiedermair emphasized individual features of
style in which Hoffmann departed from his models and
already evinced some of the characteristic traits of
German Romantic opera, while the patriotic German
literature on Weber and Wagner, trying to define a
distinctive national style, advanced the idea of a
consistent historical development from Hoffmann, Weber
and Spohr, by way of Marschner, to Wagner.
Indeed, from a formal standpoint it is only a short step
from the number operas Undine and Aurora to Euryanthe
and Lohengrin, though Hoffmann’s two serious operas
deserve consideration as more than precursors. In them
he went beyond merely transferring the forms of opera
buffa to German Singspiel, partly by giving greater scope
to the ensembles and a more prominent role to the
chorus. Even the lighter operas, such as Die Maske, Die
lustigen Musikanten, with its deftly handled mixture of
commedia dell’arte humour, intimate lyricism and almost
masonic solemnity, and Liebe und Eifersucht, ought not
simply to be viewed as the rearguard of Mozartian opera
buffa, but also as ranking among the few significant
German contributions to the genre. Hoffmann’s six
surviving operas show his sure theatrical instincts, with
dramatic climaxes always accompanied by musical ones
and the musical progression carefully timed to the stage
action.
Page 9 of 38
Only three of Hoffmann’s sacred compositions are extant.
The Mass in D minor (1803–5) is a serious attempt to
combine strict polyphonic style with modern
orchestration, avoiding the ‘ostentatious frivolity’ he
condemned in Viennese Classicism. The Miserere (1809)
reveals even greater contrapuntal facility and a more
individual expression in the lyrical passages. The Canzoni
are six polished miniatures, anticipating the ideals of
Cecilianism, though displaying more Romantic than
ideological zeal.
Becking, in the forewords to his three volumes of a
collected edition (1922–7), wrote that when Hoffmann
called the works of Bach or Mozart ‘Romantic’, he was
judging their quality, for he saw music as the most
Romantic of the arts, and only good music – that which
transcends the everyday – is Romantic. Becking saw
Hoffmann as an imitator of Mozart and came to the
undemonstrable conclusion that Hoffmann had found that
imitation sufficient to reaffirm Mozart’s supposed
Romanticism. In his view of Hoffmann’s piano sonatas
Becking disregarded chronology and depicted an
immature composer who instinctively sought to master
strict counterpoint, a ‘mysterious tissue behind which lies
hidden a world of fantasy’, and whose initial genius was
gradually stifled by his growing technical facility. But in
March 1808, when he made the fair copy of the Piano
Sonata in F minor, Hoffmann had already completed five
Singspiele, his incidental music for Das Kreuz an der
Ostsee and drafts of the Warsaw works, and his facility for
composing in free style had long been fully developed. It
was no mystical espousal of a mysterious, fantastic world,
nor even an uneasiness about the formal prototype of the
Classical sonata that induced Hoffmann to come to grips
with double counterpoint, but primarily the demands of
his publisher Nägeli. Hoffmann did not consider that this
hybrid of contrapuntal and homophonic writing was in any
sense marking a precedent; he specifically described the
sonatas as being composed in ‘the older style’, and it is a
mistake to regard them as characteristic works.
Hoffmann’s other instrumental music conforms
superficially to Classical sonata procedures. In the
Symphony in E♭ (1805–6) his individuality is most
Page 10 of 38
apparent in the irregularly structured themes and in the
lyrical flair of the slow movement. As Keil (1986) has
argued, Hoffmann’s sonata-form movements are
dominated by the idea of unity in diversity rather than by
the opposition of strongly contrasting elements found in
the works of Beethoven. In the first movement of the Harp
Quintet (composed before October 1807), for example, the
second theme is a variation in major of the first theme.
Another kind of monothematicism occurs in the opening
movement of the Piano Trio (1809), whose second subject
is barely distinguishable from the continual developing of
the first theme from which new material is created by the
fragmentation and reinterpretation of motifs. The second
theme itself then undergoes the same process, in which
the ‘development section’ is merely a continuation after a
formal caesura. The build-up to the recapitulation is
absent, and even the return is camouflaged with a
transition into the second theme. The climax of the
movement is the combination of both themes, emphasized
by occurring in a remote key rather than by dynamics.
Although Hoffmann could write melodies of seductive
beauty (e.g. ‘Abendlüftchen schweben’, no.7 of Undine),
his strength lay more in the ability to vary and develop
material than in the initial inspiration. As Jean Giraud
remarked: ‘Is the predominance of combinatory art not a
common trait of his musical and literary creations?’.
Works
Set to music
composers' names in parentheses
Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (1814–15)
Kreisleriana (Schumann), pf, op.16, 1838
Page 11 of 38
I capricci di Callot (Malipiero), op, Rome, 1942
Der goldne Topf: inc. op (W. Braunfels), op.6, c1905
opera (W. Petersen), Darmstadt, 1941
Anselmus diák [The scholar Anselmus] (G. Kósa), op, Budapest,

1945
Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht
die Geschichte vom verlornen Spiegelbilde: Act 2 of Les contes

d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), op, Paris, 1881
Die Elixiere des Teufels (1815–16)
op (G. Rodwell), London, 1829
Nachtstücke (1816–17)
Der Sandmann
La poupée de Nuremberg (Adam), operetta, Paris, 1852
Coppélia (Delibes), ballet, Paris, 1870
Act 1 of Les contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), op, Paris, 1881
La poupée (E. Audran), operetta, Paris, 1896
Page 12 of 38
Das Majorat
Die eiserne Pforte (J. Weigl), op, Vienna, 1823
Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober (1819)
pf piece (Busoni), op.12 no.2 [Racconti fantastici], 1878
Zinnober (S. von Hausegger), op, Munich, 1898
Die Serapions-Brüder (1819–21)
Die Bergwerke zu Falun
planned op (Schumann), 1831
lib arr. Wagner for J. Dessauer, 1842 [not set]
Der Haideschacht (F. von Holstein), op, Dresden, 1868
Nussknacker und Mausekönig
pf duet (Reinecke), op.46, 1870
The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky), ballet, St Petersburg, 1892
Page 13 of 38
Rath Krespel
Act 3 of Les contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), op, Paris, 1881
Le violon de Crémone (J. Cadaux), op, unperf.
Doge und Dogaressa
planned op (Schumann), 1840
Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen
Le tonnelier de Nuremberg (Bizet), planned op, 1859
op (W. Weissheimer), 1879
Maître Martin (J. Blockx), op, 1892
op (L. Lacombe), 1897
Das Fräulein von Scuderi
Der Goldschmid von Toledo (J. Stern, A. Zamara, arr. of

Offenbach), operetta-pastiche, Mannheim, 1919
Cardillac (Hindemith), op, Dresden, 1926
Page 14 of 38
Die Brautwahl
op (Busoni), Hamburg, 1912
Die Königsbraut
Le roi Carotte (Offenbach), operetta, Paris, 1872
Prinzessin Brambilla (1821)
op (W. Braunfels), Stuttgart, 1909
[source unknown]: Illusions, ou L’histoire d’un miracle (T.

Harsányi), op, Paris, 1949
Works inspired by Hoffmann
Ein Nachtstück in E.T.A. Hoffmanns Manier (T. Rangström), str

qt, 1909
Kleine Suite dem Andenken E.T.A. Hoffmanns (B. Sekles), orch,

op.21 (Leipzig, c1910)
Page 15 of 38
Musical works
Editions
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Musikalische Werke, ed. G. Becking (Leipzig,

1922–7) [B]
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Ausgewählte musikalische Werke, ed. G. von

Dadelsen and others (Mainz, 1971–) [D]
Stage
AV no. from Allroggen Verzeichnis (1970)
AV
4 Die Maske (Spl, 3, Hoffmann), 1799, D-B; excerpts ed. F.

Schnapp, vs (Berlin, 1923)
8 Scherz, List und Rache (Spl, 1, Hoffmann, after J.W. von

Goethe), Posen, 1801, lost
19 Die lustigen Musikanten (Spl, 2, C. Brentano), Warsaw, 6

April 1805, F-Pn, D iv–v
20 Das Kreuz an der Ostsee, i: Die Brautnacht (incid music,

Z. Werner), 1805, D-B, D ix
21 Die ungebetenen Gäste, oder Der Kanonikus von Mailand

(Spl, 1, Rohrmann, after A. Duval: Le souper imprévu),
1805, lost
Page 16 of 38
33 Liebe und Eifersucht (Spl, 3, Hoffmann, after P. Calderón
de la Barca: La banda y la flor), 1807, D-B, D vi–viii
34 Der Trank der Unsterblichkeit (romantische Oper, 4, J.

von Soden), 1808, D-B
37 Das Gelübde (incid music, 1, H. Cuno), Bamberg, 16 Oct

1808, lost
38 Die Wünsche (incid music, 1, Cuno), Bamberg, 9 Nov

1808, lost
39 Die Pilgerin (incid music, 1, Hoffmann), Bamberg, 18 Nov

1808, lost
41 Arlequin (ballet, C. Macco), Bamberg, 1 Jan 1809, D-B, D

ix
44 Das Gespenst (incid music, A. von Kotzebue), Bamberg, 9

April 1809, lost
51 Dirna (melodrama, 3, Soden), Bamberg, 11 Oct 1809,

BAs
53 Wiedersehn! (prol, 1, Hoffmann), 1809, D-B
54 Sabinus (melodrama, Soden), 1810, D-B, inc.
55 Aurora (grosse romantische Oper, 3, F. von Holbein),

1811–12, rev. and reorchd L. Böttcher, Bamberg, 5 Nov
1933, BAs, WÜsa, ed. in DTB, v (1984); orig. version,
Bamberg, 9 Sept 1990
Page 17 of 38
56 [quodlibet], Bamberg, 2 Feb 1811, lost
59 Saul, König in Israel (melodrama, 3, J. Seyfried, after L.C.

Caigniez: Le triomphe de David), Bamberg, 29 June 1811,
BAs, WÜsa
61 Heinrich von Wolfenschiessen (incid music, A.

Klingemann), Bamberg, 14 Jan 1812, lost
63 Roderich und Kunigunde, oder Der Eremit vom Berge

Prazzo, oder Die Windmühle von der Westseite, oder Die
triumphierende Unschuld (Parodie, prol, 2, J.F. Castelli),
Bamberg, 23 Feb 1812, lost
70 Undine (Zauberoper, 3, F.H.C. de la Motte Fouqué),

Berlin, 3 Aug 1816, D-B, D i–iii
74 Thassilo (chorus and melodrama, Fouqué), Berlin, 22 Oct

1815, lost
rev. as drama, Berlin (1), 18 Jan 1817, lost
85 Der Liebhaber nach dem Tode (op, 3, C.W. Salice-

Contessa, after Calderón: El galan fantasma), 1818–22,
inc., lost
Several single pieces, AV nos.43, 45–7, 57–8, 69, 71,

all lost
Sacred vocal
9–10 Masses, Vespers, 1802–3, lost
Page 18 of 38
11 Mass, G, 2 S, 2 vn, org, 1802–3, lost
12– Motets, choruses, 4vv, 1802–3, lost

15
18 Mass, d, 4vv, orch, 1803–5, D-B, D x
36 [Sex] Canzoni, 4vv, 1808, D-B, B iv, D x: Ave maris

stella, De profundis, Gloria Patri et Filio, Salve
Redemptor, O sanctissima, Salve regina
42 Miserere, b♭, 2 S, A, T, B, 4vv, orch, 1809, D-B, D x
72 Hymn, 1813, lost
Secular vocal
3 Judex ille (J.W. von Goethe: Faust), solo v, 4vv, org, orch,
1795, inc., lost
6 Kantate zur Feier des neuen Jahrhunderts: Singet

Chronos’ jüngstem Sohne (J.L. Schwarz), Posen, 31 Dec
1800, lost
31 Canzonets and duettinos, 1805–7, lost
32 Trois canzonettes, 2–3vv, pf (Berlin, 1808): Già riede

primavera (P. Metastasio), Senza di te, ben mio, Oh che
cucagna
Page 19 of 38
50 Songs from Golo und Genoveva (F. Müller), 1809, lost [see
AV77]
64 Tre canzonette italiane, S, 2 T, B, pf, 1812, A-Wgm, D xii:

Spuntar la sol d’aprile, La tortorella amante, Sento
l’amica speme
65 Prendi, l’acciar ti rendo (G.M. Foppa), recit and aria, S,

orch, 1812, D-B, D xi
66 Mi lagnerò tacendo della mia sorte amara (Metastasio),

1812, lost
67 [Sei] Duettini italiani, S, T, pf, 1812, D-B (Berlin, 1819), D

xii: Ombre amene (Metastasio); Dove sei, mio caro bene?;
Vicino a quel ciglio (Metastasio); Viver non potrò mai
lungi da te, mio bene; Vicino a te, ben mio, mi sento
giubilar; Ah che mi manca l’anima
68 O nume che quest’anima, S, 2 T, B, 1808–12, D-B, D xii
77 Still und hehr die Nacht: Nachtgesang (Müller: Golo und

Genoveva), 6 male vv, 1819, CH-Bu, facs. in Schnapp, ii
(1967), 224
78 Türkische Musik: Ein Kaiser einst in der Türkei (F.

Förster), 4 male vv, 1820, RUS-KAu, D xii
79 Schwer ist die Kunst und kurz das Leben, canon, 4vv,
1820; unknown private collection
80 Ach warum weiter du fliehende Welle (Fouqué), lied, male

vv, 1820–21, lost
Page 20 of 38
81 Two drinking-songs (H.G. von Ahlefeldt), male vv, 1820–
21, lost: Tafel halten bei drei Speisen, Wir trinken Wein
vom freien Rhein
82 Walpurgisnacht (cant., Förster), 4vv, 1820–21, lost
83 Jägerlied (L. Tieck), solo vv, 4 male vv, ?1820–21, frag.,

D-B, D xii
84 Katzburschenlied (Hoffmann), 4–5 male vv, 1821, frag.,

Allroggen (1970), 128, D xii
Other canzonets and songs, AV nos.2, 5, 35, 48–9, all

lost
Orchestral and chamber
7 Overture: Musica per la chiesa, orch, 1801, D-B, D x
23 Symphony, E♭, 1805–6, D-B, D xi
24 Quintet, c, hp, 2 vn, va, vc, before Oct 1807, D-B, B ii, D
xii
25 Quintet, D, pf, 2 vn, va, db, before Oct 1807, lost
52 Piano Trio, E, 1809, private collection, D xii
Piano
1 Kleine Rondos, 1794–5, lost
Page 21 of 38
16 Fantasia, c, 1803, lost
17 Sonata, A♭, 1803, lost
22 Sonata, A, in Wybor piȩknych, vii (Breslau, 1805); ed. F.

Schnapp (Kassel, 1968), D xii
26 Sonata, b♭, ?1807–8, lost
27 Sonata, f, ?1807, D-B, B i, D xii
28 Sonata, C, ?1807, lost
29 Sonata, F, ?1807, D-B, B i, D xii
30 Sonata, f, ?1807–8, D-B, B i, D xii
40 Sonata, c♯, c1808, D-B, B i, D xii
62 Waltzes, pf/?orch, 23 Jan 1812, lost
73 Deutschlands Triumph im Siege bei Leipzig (Leipzig,

1814) [pubd under pseud. A. Vollweiler]
76 Serapions-Walzer, c1818–21; unknown private collection
Critical writings
Music reviews and related essays
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Page 22 of 38
‘Schreiben eines Klostergeistlichen an seinen Freund in
der Hauptstadt’, Der Freimüthige, 1 (1803), 573 [on use
of Greek chorus in Schiller’s Die Braut von Messina]
‘Über Salomons Urtheil’, Allgemeine deutsche Theater-

Zeitung (17 and 20 May 1808) [review of A. Quaisin: Le
jugement de Salomon]
F. Witt: Symphonies nos.5 and 6, AMZ, 11 (1808–9), 513–

17
L. van Beethoven: Symphony no.5, AMZ, 12 (1809–10),

630–42, 652–9
V. Fioravanti: I virtuosi ambulanti [vs by L. Wolff], AMZ,

12 (1809–10), 204–8
C.W. Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide [vs by G.C. Grosheim],

AMZ, 12 (1809–10), 770–71, 784–9
A. Romberg: Pater noster, AMZ, 12 (1809–10), 209–12
J. Weigl: Das Waisenhaus, AMZ, 12 (1809–10), 809–19
F. Paer: La Sofonisba [vs by C.F. Ebers], AMZ, 13 (1811),

185–95
L. Spohr: Symphony no.1, AMZ, 13 (1811), 797–806, 813–

19
L. van Beethoven: Overture to Coriolan, AMZ, 14 (1812),

519–26
A. Gyrowetz: Der Augenarzt, AMZ, 14 (1812), 855–64
E. Méhul: Ouverture de chasse from Le jeune Henri, AMZ,

14 (1812), 743–7
A.H. Pustkuchen: Choralbuch und kurze Anleitung, AMZ,

14 (1812), 791–7
Page 23 of 38
L. van Beethoven: Incidental music to Goethe’s Egmont,
AMZ, 15 (1813), 473–81
L. van Beethoven: Mass in C, AMZ, 15 (1813), 389–97,

409–14
L. van Beethoven: Two piano trios op.70, AMZ, 15 (1813),

141–54 [music exx. in suppl. 3]
C.A.P. Braun: Symphony no.4 and J.W. Wilms: Symphony

op.23, AMZ, 15 (1813), 373–80
‘Alte und neue Kirchenmusik’, AMZ, 16 (1814), 577–84,

593–603, 611–19
J.C. Ambrosch: Two songs, AMZ, 16 (1814), 811 only
A. Bergt: Christus, durch Leiden verherrlicht, AMZ, 16

(1814), 5–17
A. Boieldieu: Der neue Gutsherr [Le nouveau seigneur de

village], AMZ, 16 (1814), 669–73
‘Der Opern-Almanach des Hrn. A. v. Kotzebue’, AMZ, 16

(1814), 720–21, 736–41
J. Elsner: Overtures to Andromeda and Leszek bialy, AMZ,

16 (1814), 41–6
M.K. Ogiński: 12 polonaises for piano, AMZ, 16 (1814),

792–4
J.F. Reichardt: Piano Sonata in F minor, AMZ, 16 (1814),

344–50
W.F. Riem: 12 lieder op.27, AMZ, 16 (1814), 680–92
F. Schneider: Piano Sonata op.29 [4 hands], AMZ, 16

(1814), 221–7
Page 24 of 38
B. Stiastny: Il maestro ed il scolare and J. Stiastny: 2
pièces faciles et progressives, AMZ, 16 (1814), 726–8
‘Über einen Ausspruch Sacchini’s und Über den

sogenannten Effect in der Musik’, AMZ, 16 (1814), 477–85
A. André: Piano variations on Ah vous dirai-je, maman and

O du lieber Augustin and P.J. Riotte: Piano variations on a
theme from Weigl’s Schweizerfamilie, AMZ, 17 (1815),
138–40
J. Fröhlich: Piano Sonata [4 hands] and Piano Concerto [4

hands], AMZ, 17 (1815), 806–8
Aus Hoffmann’s Leben und Nachlass, ed. J.E. Hitzig

(Berlin, 1823/R), 246 only [frag.; orig., 1808, lost]
Concert reviews
‘Briefe über Tonkunst in Berlin: erster Brief’, AMZ, 17
(1815), 17–27 [incl. remarks on concert by B. Romberg
and perfs. of Sacchini’s Oedipe à Colone and Spontini’s
Fernand Cortez]
E. Méhul: Ariodant, Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt, 1

(1815–16), 195
W.A. Mozart: Don Giovanni, Dramaturgisches

Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 107
W.A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Dramaturgisches

Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 158
F. Paer: Camilla, Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–

16), 92
A. Sacchini: Oedipe à Colone, Dramaturgisches

Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 99
A. Sacchini: Oedipe à Colone and R. Kreutzer: Paul et

Virginie, Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 179
Page 25 of 38
B.A. Weber: Sulmalle and Maler Tenier, Dramaturgisches
Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 114
P. Winter: Das unterbrochene Opferfest, Dramaturgisches

Wochenblatt, 1 (1815–16), 91
J.P. Schmidt: Die Alpenhütte, Berlinische Nachrichten von

Staats- und gelehrten Sachen (12 Sept 1816)
G. Spontini: La vestale, Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt, 2

(1816–17), 18
‘Einige Bemerkungen zu den Worten, die der Königl.

Kammersänger Hr. Fischer in Nr.32 des “Gesellschafters”
über das Verhältnis des Künstlers zum Publikum
ausgesprochen hat’, Der Freimüthige, 15 (Leipzig, 1818),
175
J.P. Schmidt: Das Fischermädchen oder Hass und Liebe,

KPBZ (Vossische Zeitung) (3 Dec 1818)
‘An den Herrn Konzertmeister Möser’, KPBZ (6 Nov 1819)
‘Ein Brief des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler’, Der

Freimüthige, 16 (1819), 337, 342
‘Noch einige Worte über das Konzert des Herrn

Konzertmeister Möser, am 26sten März d.J.’, KPBZ (30
March 1820)
‘Rüge’, KPBZ (25 April 1820) [reproof of anti-Semitic

sentiments in a review in Der Freimüthige of works by
Méhul and Meyerbeer]
‘Gruss an Spontini’, KPBZ (6 June 1820)
‘Über ein Konzert unter Leitung Spontinis zum Geburtstag

Friedrich Wilhelms III’, KPBZ (5 Aug 1820)
C.W. Gluck: Armide, KPBZ (16 Sept 1820)
Page 26 of 38
‘Zufällige Gedanken bei dem Erscheinen dieser Blätter’,
Allgemeine Zeitung für Musik und Musikliteratur (9 and
16 Oct 1820)
‘Bescheidene Bemerkung zu dem die letzte Aufführung

der Oper Don Juan betreffenden in No.142 dieser Zeitung
enthaltenen Aufsatze’, KPBZ (30 Nov 1820); correction (2
Dec 1820)
G. Spontini: Lalla Rükh, Zeitung für Theater und Musik

(24 Feb 1821)
‘Nachträgliche Bemerkungen über Spontinis Oper

Olympia’, Zeitung für Theater und Musik (9, 16, 23 and 30
June, 14, 21 and 28 July, 4, 18 and 25 Aug, 1, 8 and 22
Sept 1821) [inc.]
Bibliography
Source material
G. Salomon : E.T.A. Hoffmann: Bibliographie (Weimar,
1924, 2/1927/R)
K. Kanzog : ‘Grundzüge der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Forschung

seit 1945’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft,
9 (1962), 1–30; ‘Bibliographie für die Jahre 1962–1965’,
Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, 12 (1966),
33–40; ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann-Literatur 1966–1969’,
Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, xvi (1970),
28–40
F. Schnapp, ed. E.T.A. Hoffmann: Schriften zur Musik:

Nachlese (Munich, 1963, 2/1978)
J. Voerster : 160 Jahre E.T.A. Hoffmann Forschung 1805–

1965: eine Bibliographie mit Inhaltserfassung und
Erläuterungen (Stuttgart, 1967)
Page 27 of 38
F. Schnapp, ed.: E.T.A. Hoffmanns Briefwechsel, 1–3
(Munich, 1967–9) [see also ‘Korrekturen und
nachträgliche Bemerkungen zur Neuausgabe des
Hoffmannischen Briefwechsel’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A.
Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, xvii (1971), 36–49]
G. Allroggen : E.T.A. Hoffmanns Kompositionen: ein

chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis seiner
musikalischen Werke mit einer Einführung (Regensburg,
1970)
F. Schnapp, ed. E.T.A. Hoffmann: Tagebücher (Munich,

1971)
J.C. Sahlin, ed.: Selected Letters of E.T.A. Hoffmann

(Chicago, 1977)
K. Günzel : E.T.A. Hoffmann: Leben und Werk in Briefen,

Selbstzeugnissen und Zeitdokumenten (Düsseldorf, 1979)
F. Schnapp, ed.: Der Musiker E.T.A. Hoffmann: ein

Dokumentenband (Hildesheim, 1981)
G.R. Kaiser : E.T.A. Hoffmann (Stuttgart, 1988) [incl.

further bibliography]
D. Charlton, ed.: E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings:

‘Kreisleriana’ – ‘The Poet and the Composer’ – Music
Criticism (Cambridge, 1989)
Life and works

J.E. Hitzig, ed.: Aus Hoffmann’s Leben und Nachlass
(Berlin, 1823/R)
J.E. Hitzig : E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Erzählungen aus seinen

letzten Lebensjahren, ed. M. Hoffmann (Stuttgart, 1839)
G. Ellinger : E.T.A. Hoffmann: sein Leben und seine Werke

(Hamburg, 1894)
Page 28 of 38
W. Harich : E.T.A. Hoffmann: das Leben eines Künstlers
(Berlin, 1920, 4/1922/R)
R. von Schaukal : E.T.A. Hoffmann: sein Werk aus seinem

Leben (Zürich, 1923)
V. Ljungdorff : E.T.A. Hoffmann och ursprunget till hans

konstnärskap (Lund, 1924)
E. Heilborn : E.T.A. Hoffmann: der Künstler und die Kunst

(Berlin, 1926)
J. Mistler : La vie d’Hoffmann (Paris, 1927, 2/1950/R as

Hoffmann le fantastique)
E. von Schenk : E.T.A. Hoffmann: ein Kampf um das Bild

des Menschen (Berlin, 1939)
J.F.-A. Ricci : E.T.A. Hoffmann: l’homme et l’oeuvre (Paris,

1947)
H.W. Hewett-Thayer : Hoffmann: Author of the Tales

(Princeton, NJ, 1948)
R. Taylor : Hoffmann: a Study of Romanticism (London,

1963)
R.M. Schafer : E.T.A. Hoffmann and Music (Toronto,

1975); see also review by R.M. Longyear, MQ, 62 (1976),
282–4
K-.D. Dobat : Musik als romantische Illusion: eine

Untersuchung zur Bedeutung der Musikvorstellung E.T.A.
Hoffmanns für sein literarisches Werk (Tübingen, 1984)
Other biographical studies

F. Rochlitz : ‘Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann’, Für
Freunde der Tonkunst, 2 (Leipzig, 1825), 3–34
Page 29 of 38
J.L. Schwarz, ed.: Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben eines
Geschäftsmannes, Dichters und Humoristen, i (Leipzig,
1828), 310ff
C.F. Kunz : Aus dem Leben zweier Dichter: Ernst Theodor

Wilhelm Hoffmann’s und Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel’s
(Leipzig, 1836/R)
E.A. Hagen : Geschichte des Theaters in Preussen

(Königsberg, 1854/R)
H. von Müller, ed.: E.T.A. Hoffmann im persönlichen und

brieflichen Verkehr, i: Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel:
Hoffmann und Hippel: das Denkmal einer Freundschaft
(Berlin, 1912)
H. Güttler : Königsbergs Musikkultur im 18. Jahrhundert

(Königsberg, 1925)
K. Negus : E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Other World (Philadelphia,

1965)
F. Schnapp, ed. H. von Müller: Gesammelte Aufsätze über

E.T.A. Hoffmann (Hildesheim, 1974)
J.M. McGlathery : Mysticism and Sexuality: E.T.A.

Hoffmann (Las Vegas, 1981–5)
H. Schulze : E.T.A. Hoffmann als Musikschriftsteller und

Komponist (Leipzig, 1983)
W. Rüdiger : Musik und Wirklichkeit bei E.T.A. Hoffmann:

zur Entstehung einer Musikanschauung der Romantik
(Pfaffenweiler, 1989)
H. Engdahl : ‘Tonen och fugan: extas och reflexion i E.T.A.

Hoffmanns estetik’, SMN, 16 (1990), 9–20
S. Hoy-Draheim : ‘Robert Schumann und E.T.A.

Hoffmann’, Schumann und seine Dichter: Düsseldorf
1991, 61–70
Page 30 of 38
Compositions and writings: general studies
H. Truhn : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann als Musiker: mit Beziehung
auf die bevorstehende Herausgabe seines musikalischen
Nachlasses’, Der Freihafen, 2/3 (1839), 66–105
A.B. Marx : Erinnerungen: aus meinem Leben (Berlin,

1865), i, 179; ii, 46ff
E. von Marschalk : Die Bamberger Hoff-Musik unter den

drei letzten Fürstbischofen (Bamberg, 1885)
H. de Curzon : Musiciens du temps passé (Paris, 1893),

173–296
F. Leist : ‘Geschichte des Theaters in Bamberg’, Bericht

über Bestand und Wirken des historischen Vereins zu
Bamberg, 55 (1893), 130–65, 168
H. de Curzon : ‘La musique d’Hoffmann’, Revue

internationale de musique (15 May 1898)
H. de Curzon : ‘La musique d’Hoffmann: d’aprés quelques

travaux nouvellement publiés’, Guide musical, 48 (1902),
722–4
E. Kroll : E.T.A. Hoffmanns musikalische Anschauungen

(Königsberg, 1909) [appx. on rediscovered AMZ reviews]
E. Kroll : ‘Über den Musiker E.T.A. Hoffmann’, ZMw, 4

(1921–2), 530–52; corrections, 644 only
H. von Wolzogen : E.T.A. Hoffmann, der deutsche

Geisterseher (Leipzig, 1922) [orig. articles in Bayreuther
Blätter, 1893–5]
G. Becking : ‘Zur musikalischen Romantik’, DVLG, 2

(1924), 581–615
G. Abraham : ‘Hoffmann as a Composer’, MT, 83 (1942),

233–5; repr. in Slavonic and Romantic Music (London,
1968), 233–8
Page 31 of 38
P. Greeff : E.T.A. Hoffmann als Musiker und
Musikschriftsteller (Cologne, 1948)
A.R. Neumann : ‘Musician or Author? E.T.A. Hoffmann’s

Decision’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 52
(1953), 174–81
H. Ehinger : E.T.A. Hoffmann als Musiker und

Musikschriftsteller (Olten, 1954) [see also idem,
‘Nachwort zu einer E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Monographie’, SMz,
94 (1954), 369–70]
W. Kron : Die angeblichen Freischütz-Kritiken E.T.A.

Hoffmanns (Munich, 1957)
E. Oberti : ‘Hoffmann e l’estetica romantica’, Rivista di

estetica, 5 (1960), 52–80
K.G. Fellerer : ‘Der Musiker E.T.A. Hoffmann’,

Literaturwissenschaftliches Jb der Görres-Gesellschaft,
new ser., 4 (1963), 43–54
E. Lichtenhahn : ‘Über einen Ausspruch Hoffmanns und

über das Romantische in der Musik’, Musik und
Geschichte: Leo Schrade zum sechzigsten Geburtstag
(Cologne, 1963), 178–98
M.M. Raraty : E.T.A. Hoffmann and the Theatre: a Study

of the Origins, Development and Nature of his
Relationship with the Theatre (diss., U. of Sheffield, 1963)
D. Sölle and W. Seifert : ‘In Dresden und in Atlantis: E.T.A.

Hoffmann und die Musik’, NZM, Jg.124 (1963), 260–73
M. Geck : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Anschauungen über

Kirchenmusik’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Musikanschauung im 19. Jahrhundert: Kassel 1964, 61–71
L. Siegel : ‘Wagner and the Romanticism of E.T.A.

Hoffmann’, MQ, 51 (1965), 597–613
Page 32 of 38
F. Ritzel : Die Entwicklung der ‘Sonatenform’ im
musiktheoretischen Schrifttum des 18. und 19.
Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1968)
G. Allroggen : ‘Die Opern-Ästhetik E.T.A. Hoffmanns’,

Beiträge zur Geschichte der Oper, ed. H. Becker
(Regensburg, 1969), 25–34
H.H. Eggebrecht : ‘Beethoven und der Begriff der

Klassik’, Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse, 271
(1971), 43–60
C. Dahlhaus : ‘Romantische Musikästhetik und Wiener

Klassik’, AMw, 29 (1972), 167–81
D.V. Zhitomirsky : ‘Ideal′noye i real′noye v muzikal′noy

ėstetike E.T.A. Gofmana’, SovM (1973), no.8, pp.97–107
E. Sams : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1776–1822’, MT, 117 (1976),

29–32 [incl. list of works based on Hoffmann’s fiction]
F. Schnapp : ‘Der Musiker E.T.A. Hoffmann’, Mitteilungen

der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, 25 (1979), 1–23
E. Lichtenhahn : ‘Grundgedanken zu E.T.A. Hoffmanns

romantischer Theorie der musikalischen Interpretation’,
Basler Studien zur Interpretation der alten Musik, ed. V.
Gutmann (Winterthur, 1980), 252–64
C. Dahlhaus : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Beethoven-Kritik und die

Ästhetik des Erhabenen’, AMw, 38 (1981), 79–92
N. Miller : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann und die Musik’, Zu E.T.A.

Hoffmann, ed. S. Scher (Stuttgart, 1981), 182–98
W. Moser : ‘Writing (about) Music: the Case of E.T.A.

Hoffmann’, The Romantic Tradition: German Literature
and Music in the Nineteenth Century: Hamilton, ON,
1983, 209–26
Page 33 of 38
C. Dahlhaus : ‘“Geheimnisvolle Sprache eines fernen
Geisterreichs”: Kirchenmusik und Oper in der Ästhetik
E.T.A. Hoffmanns’, Akademische Gedenkfeier … für …
Karl Gustav Fellerer (Cologne, 1984), 23–35
G. Reinäcker : Finali in Opern von E.T.A. Hoffmann, Louis

Spohr, Heinrich Marschner und Carl Maria von Weber
(diss., Humboldt U., Berlin, 1984)
E.T.A. Hoffmann et la musique: Clermont-Ferrand 1985
J. Rohr : E.T.A. Hoffmanns Theorie des musikalischen

Dramas (Baden-Baden, 1985)
W. Keil : E.T.A. Hoffmann als Komponist: Studien zur

Kompositionstechnik in ausgewählten Werken
(Wiesbaden, 1986)
F. Ferlan : Le thème d’Ondine dans la littérature et l’opéra

allemands au XIXe siècle (Berne, 1987)
W. Keil : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Auseinandersetzung mit

Mozart am Beispiel seiner Es-Dur-Sinfonie’, Studien zur
Instrumentalmusik: Lothar Hoffmann-Erbrecht zum 60.
Geburtstag, ed. A. Bingmann and others (Tutzing, 1988),
343–61
M. Setzer : Wirklichkeitsentgrenzung und musikalische

Poetologie: Untersuchungen zum Werk von E.T.A.
Hoffmann (Frankfurt, 1988)
R.L. Wilson : Text and Music in the Operas of E.T.A.

Hoffmann (diss., U. of Southern California, 1990)
C.C. Moraal : The Life and Afterlife of Johannes Kreisler:

Affinities between E.T.A. Hoffmann, Hector Berlioz, and
Robert Schumann (diss., U. of Michigan, 1994)
W. Braun : ‘“Schauerlich geheimnisvolle Kombinationen”:

zum strengen Kontrapunkt in E.T.A. Hoffmanns
Instrumentalkompositionen’, Studien zur
Musikgeschichte: eine Festschrift für Ludwig Finscher,
Page 34 of 38
ed. A. Laubenthal and K. Kusan-Windweh (Kassel, 1995),
466–76
S. Rumph : ‘A Kingdom not of this World: the Political

Context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Beethoven Criticism’, 19CM,
19 (1995–6), 50–67
Studies of individual works

Reviews of Undine, AMZ, 18 (1816), 655–6; 19 (1817),
201–8 [by Weber; repr. in Sämtliche Schriften von Carl
Maria von Weber, ed. G. Kaiser (Berlin, 1908), no.106;
Eng. trans. in Carl Maria von Weber: Writings on Music,
ed. J. Warrack (Cambridge, 1981), 200–05]; xxiii (1821),
419–20
H. von Chezy : Unvergessenes, 2 (Leipzig, 1858), 162–74

[on Der Liebhaber nach dem Tode]
H. Pfitzner : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Undine’, Süddeutsche

Monatshefte, 3/7–12 (1906), 370–80; repr. in Gesammelte
Schriften, i (Munich, 1926), 55–75
L. Schiedermair: Review of Pfitzner’s Undine vocal score,

ZIMG, 8 (1906–7), 253–5
K. Thiessen : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Zauberoper Undine und

ihre Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der deutschen
romantischen Oper’, Neue Musik-Zeitung, 28 (1907), 491–
3
H. von Müller : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns letzte Komposition’, Die

Musik, 11 (1911–12), 349–52 [on Türkische Musik]
H. von Müller : ‘Drei Arbeiten Ernst Theodor Hoffmanns

aus den ersten Regierungsjahren Friedrich Wilhelms III’,
Deutsche Rundschau, 166 (1916), 57–85 [on Die Maske]
E. Kroll : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann als Bühnenkomponist’, Die

Musik, 15 (1922–3), 99–115 [on Aurora]
E. Kroll : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Opern’, Almanach der

Deutschen Musikbücherei, 4 (1924–5), 178–95 [on Aurora]
Page 35 of 38
F. Schnapp : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns letzte Oper’, SMz, 88
(1948), 339–45 [on Der Liebhaber nach dem Tode]
F. Schnapp : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Textbearbeitung der Oper

“Olimpia” von Spontini’, Jb des Wiener Goethe-Vereins, 66
(1962), 126–43
W. Schneider : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Nachtgesang aus der

“Genovefa” des Malers Müller’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A.
Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, 11 (1964), 37–48
J. Giraud : ‘“Die Maske”, ein bereits typisches Hoffmann-

Werk’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, 14
(1968), 18–30
G. Allroggen : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Musik zur “Dirna”’,

31–9
R. Herd : ‘Hoffmanns “Dirna” wieder aufgetaucht: ein

Bericht’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft,
15 (1969), 2–3
F. Schnapp : ‘Die Quelle von Sodens Melodram “Dirna”’,

4–6
G. Wöllner : ‘Romantische Symbolik in E.T.A. Hoffmanns

A-Dur Sonate’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-
Gesellschaft, 15 (1969), 42–8
G. Allroggen : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmanns Klaviersonaten’,

1–7; 17 (1971), 17–20
A.S. Garlington : ‘Notes on Dramatic Motives in Opera:

Hoffmann’s Undine ’, MR, 32 (1971), 136–45
M.M. Raraty : ‘Wer war Rohrmann? Der Dichter und der

Komponist’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-
Gesellschaft, 18 (1972), 9–16 [on Der Kanonikus von
Mailand]
Page 36 of 38
J. Giraud : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann et son lecteur: procédés
d’écriture et initiation à la poésie dans une page du
Sandmann’, Recherches germaniques, 3 (1973), 102–24
G. Allroggen : ‘Hoffmanns Musik zum “Sabinus”’,

41–7
F. Schnapp, ed.: ‘ Sabinus: Melodram in drei Aufzügen von

Julius Reichsgrafen von Soden mit Abänderungen von
E.T.A. Hoffmann’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A. Hoffmann-
Gesellschaft, 20 (1974), 1–41 [incl. 1st pubn of Soden’s
complete text]
H. Dechant : E.T.A. Hoffmanns Oper ‘Aurora’ (Regensburg,

1975)
A.S. Garlington : ‘E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Der Dichter und der

Komponist” and the Creation of the German Romantic
Opera’, MQ, 65 (1979), 22–47
J. Schläder : ‘Undine’ auf dem Musiktheater: zur

Entstehungsgeschichte der deutschen Spieloper (Bonn,
1979)
H. Dechant : ‘Entstehung und Bedeutung von E.T.A.

Hoffmanns Oper Aurora ’, Mitteilungen der E.T.A.
Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, 31 (1985), 6–14
W. Kirsch : ‘“Wahrhaft frommer Sinn und

Selbstverleugnung”: E.T.A. Hoffmanns Canzoni per 4 voci
alla Capella’, Studien zur Kirchenmusik im 19.
Jahrhundert: Friedrich Wilhelm Riedel zum 60.
Geburtstag, ed. C.-H. Mahling (Tutzing, 1994), 13–34
See also
Absolute music
Bamberg
Musicology, §II, 3: Disciplines of musicology: Textual
criticism
Romanticism, §1: History of usage
Page 37 of 38
Colour and music, §1: Colours as related to music
Haydn, Michael, §2: Vocal works
Hermeneutics, §3: Musical hermeneutics: 19th century
Analysis, §II, 2: 1750–1840
Criticism, §II, 1(ii)(b): Germany and Austria: 19th century:
Newspaper criticism & feuilletons
Nationalism, §5: From national to universal
Offenbach, Jacques, §2: Works
Schumann, Robert, §6: The Davidsbündler comes of age:
Leipzig, 1834–8
Symphony, §II, 2: 19th century: Beethoven
See also from The New Grove Dictionary of Opera:

E(rnst) T(heodor) A(madeus) Hoffmann; Undine
More on this topic

Hoffmann, E(rnst) T(heodor) A(madeus)
(opera) <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/
view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/
omo-9781561592630-e-5000008716> in Oxford
Music Online <http://oxfordmusiconline.com>
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Hoffmann, E(rnst) T(heodor)

(b Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], Jan 24, 1776; d Berlin, June 25,

His father Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann (1736–97), Hofgerichts-

Hoffmann attended the Burgschule in Königsberg and became

Hoffmann completed his law studies in July 1795, and on 27 August

Soon after breaking off his engagement to Sophie Doerffer,

In the Polish capital Hoffmann the musician had to make a

After Napoleon entered Warsaw and disbanded the Prussian

At the beginning of June 1807, when former officials who refused to

In September 1809 Soden was compelled to resume the directorship

The mastering of unfulfilled passion remained Hoffmann’s poetic

Meanwhile Hoffmann continued to pursue his musical career. An

Although Undine was never again staged during Hoffmann’s lifetime

Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (1814–15)

Kreisleriana (Schumann), pf, op.16, 1838

Der goldne Topf: inc. op (W. Braunfels), op.6, c1905

opera (W. Petersen), Darmstadt, 1941

Anselmus diák [The scholar Anselmus] (G. Kósa), op, Budapest,

Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht

die Geschichte vom verlornen Spiegelbilde: Act 2 of Les contes

Die Elixiere des Teufels (1815–16)

op (G. Rodwell), London, 1829

La poupée de Nuremberg (Adam), operetta, Paris, 1852

Coppélia (Delibes), ballet, Paris, 1870

Act 1 of Les contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), op, Paris, 1881

La poupée (E. Audran), operetta, Paris, 1896

Die eiserne Pforte (J. Weigl), op, Vienna, 1823

Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober (1819)

pf piece (Busoni), op.12 no.2 [Racconti fantastici], 1878

Zinnober (S. von Hausegger), op, Munich, 1898

Die Serapions-Brüder (1819–21)

Die Bergwerke zu Falun

planned op (Schumann), 1831

lib arr. Wagner for J. Dessauer, 1842 [not set]

Der Haideschacht (F. von Holstein), op, Dresden, 1868

Nussknacker und Mausekönig

pf duet (Reinecke), op.46, 1870

The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky), ballet, St Petersburg, 1892

Act 3 of Les contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), op, Paris, 1881

Le violon de Crémone (J. Cadaux), op, unperf.

Doge und Dogaressa

planned op (Schumann), 1840

Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen

Le tonnelier de Nuremberg (Bizet), planned op, 1859

op (W. Weissheimer), 1879

Maître Martin (J. Blockx), op, 1892

op (L. Lacombe), 1897

Das Fräulein von Scuderi

Der Goldschmid von Toledo (J. Stern, A. Zamara, arr. of

Cardillac (Hindemith), op, Dresden, 1926

op (Busoni), Hamburg, 1912

Le roi Carotte (Offenbach), operetta, Paris, 1872

Prinzessin Brambilla (1821)

op (W. Braunfels), Stuttgart, 1909

[source unknown]: Illusions, ou L’histoire d’un miracle (T.

Works inspired by Hoffmann

Ein Nachtstück in E.T.A. Hoffmanns Manier (T. Rangström), str

Kleine Suite dem Andenken E.T.A. Hoffmanns (B. Sekles), orch,

E.T.A. Hoffmann: Musikalische Werke, ed. G. Becking (Leipzig,

E.T.A. Hoffmann: Ausgewählte musikalische Werke, ed. G. von

4 Die Maske (Spl, 3, Hoffmann), 1799, D-B; excerpts ed. F.

8 Scherz, List und Rache (Spl, 1, Hoffmann, after J.W. von

19 Die lustigen Musikanten (Spl, 2, C. Brentano), Warsaw, 6