DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

416 HOFFMANN HOFHAIMER
1835 professor at Breslau, His political views
caused his dismissal in 1S43, and he was not
allowed to return to Prussia till 1848. Finally
he became librarian to Prince Lippe at Corvey in
Westphalia, and there died Jan. 19, 1874. His
Gesckichte des Deutschen Kirc]unliedes (1st ed.
1832, 2nd 1854 ; Rumpler, Hanover) is written
in a thoroughly scientific spirit, and contains
important discoveries. He edited Schlesische
Volkslieder mil Mdodien (1842), and DpAitsche
GeseUschaftsUeder des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts
(1844). His original melodies, and above all
his poems ioT ciiiXAxen {Kinderliedcr, 1843), are
widely and deservedly popular. F. G.
HOFFMANN, K.a.kel. See Bohemian
String Quartet.
HOFFMEISTER, Franz Anton, born at
Eothenburg on the Neckar, 1754 ; studied law
at Vienna, began his musical life as a Church-
Capellmeister, and in 1783 opened a book, art,
and music business there. This he threw up in
1798 with the intention of going to London. He,
however, got no farther than Leipzig, remained
there, and in Dec. 1800, in conjunction with
Ambrosius Kiihnel, founded the well-known
'Bureau de Musique,' which still flourishes more
than ever. [Peters,] On Jan. 2, 1805, he
again relinquished his business, returned to
Vienna, devoted himself to composition, and
died Feb. 10, 1812. Hoffmeister was an extraordinarily
prolific writer ; he left 350 pieces of
all dimensions for the flute alone ; 120 for
strings ; symphonies and nocturnes for full
orchestra pieces for wind band and for clavier
;
songs ; church music ; and nine operas— all
light and pleasing, and nmch relished by dilct-
tanti. [See the Qaellen- Lexikon.] The early
publications of his firm were very coarsely
engraved, as, for instance, Haydn's overture in
D and quartet in D minor (known as op. 8),
also Mozart's PF. quartets in G minor and
Ei>, which promised to be the beginning of a
long series, but on Hoffmeister'g allegation that
they were too obscure for the public, Mozart
cancelled the contract, though applying to
Hoffmeister when in want of money shortly
afterwards. [He started a subscription in 1801
for the publication of Bach's works.] The
nature of Beethoven's relations with him is
shown by his letters of ISOO and 1801, in which
he olfers his opp. 19, 20, 21, 22, to his ' geliebtesten
Herrn Bruder.' c. Y. p.
HOFHAIMER (Hoffheimer), Paul, horn
Jan. 25, 1459, at Radstadt in the territory of
the Archbishop of Salzburg, became, apparently
without much special instruction, one of the
most distinguished organ players of his time.
He entered first the service of Archduke Sigismund
of Tyrol, but afterwards betook himself
to tlie court of the Emperor Maximilian I. He
was in high favour with the Emperor, and
frequently accompanied him on his journeys.
There is some uncertainty as to the precise dates
of his appointments, but from 1480 to 1519
his chief place of abode would seem to have
been Innsbruck, where the Emperor had his
regular chapel with Hofhaimer as organist. In
1515, on the occasion of a solemn Te Deum sung
inSt. Stephen's Church, Vienna, whenHofhaimer
played the organ in the presence of three crowned
heads, he was, at the Emperor's request, created
a Knight of the Golden Spur by King Ladislaus
of Hungary, and was raised to the rank of
nobility by the Emperor himself. After the
Emperor's death in 1519 he would seem to
have returned to Salzburg, where from 1526 to
his own death in 1539 he was in the service of
the Archbishop as Cathedral organist. It was
chiefly as an organ player that Hoihaimer acquired
fame in his lifetime and was celebrated
byhis contemporaries. OttomarLuscinius praises
his playing in the highest terms, describing it
as full of warmth and power, uniting the most
wonderful finger -skill with a majestic flow of
harmony pireviously unsurpassed. But of his
orgau compositions little if anything remains.
In a MS. of song compositions by Isaac, Senfl,
and others, now in the Imperial Library, Vienna,
Ambros was fortunate enough to discover a piece
with Hofhaimer's name, which ap)peared to be
a three-part organ fantasia upon a song, ' On
freudt verzer ich manchentag. ' Ritter in his
Geschidde des OrgelspieU {\>. 97), wdiere the piece
is reproduced (n. 58), confirms the judgment of
Ambros as to its being really an organ piece, and
considers that it alone suffices to give Hofhaimer
his place as a master of the organ beside Arnold
Schlick, who, if he surpasses Hofhaimer in the invention
of florid passages for the organ, is inferior
to him as a harmonist. But it is chiefly as the
composer of simple four-part German songs that
Hofhaimer is now known to us. Eitner is able
to reckon up fifteen songs as certainly by Hofhaimer,
but many more by him may be hidden
among the anonymous works in the \'ariouscollections
of the time. Five of them are foundwithout
name inOeglin's Liederhiich, 1512(see thereprint
by Eitner, 1880). Several others besides these
are to be met with in Forster's Liederhiich, 1539.
Kade in the Noten-Beilagen to Ambros has reprinted
three from Forster, one of wdiich is the
same as in Oeglin. These songs, as Eitner says,
are distinguished by a rare tenderness of feeling
and unusual loveliness of expression. They are
written for the most part in very simple fourpart
harmony, without much contrapuntalelaboration.
In the Monatshefte , x.xv. p. 191, Eitner
gives a specimen of Hofhaimer's different contrapuntal
treatment of a three-part song. In
one of the four-part songs reprinted by Kade,
(' Jlcius trauern ist') Ambros calls attention to
the remarkable resemblance to the melody of
the well-known chorale, ' Aus tiefer Noth.' An-
other work of Hofhaimer's to be noticed is his
Harmoiiiae Pocticne, sire carinina noiinuUa
Horatii, 4 voc. , published at Nuremberg in 1539.