Richard Hoffmann (composer, 1925)

Richard Hoffmann (born 20 April 1925 in Vienna, Austria) is 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.

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.

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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