Hoffmann, Richard

(b Vienna, 20 April 1925). American composer of Austrian birth. Trained from childhood on the violin and in music theory, his first performance as a composer occurred on Austrian Radio as early as 1935. In the same year his family emigrated to New Zealand. He subsequently attended Auckland University College (1942--5), where he studied the organ. In 1947 he moved to the USA to study composition with Schoenberg, whose assistant he became in 1948; he completed the PhD in musicology at UCLA in 1951. He has taught at UCLA, becoming lecturer in music after Schoenberg's death, and was Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition at Oberlin College (from 1956). From 1965 he gave lectures and courses throughout the USA and in Modling, near Vienna (from 1980), where he has conducted courses in Schoenbergian analysis. He served as an editor for a complete edition of Schoenberg's works (Mainz and Vienna, 1970). As a composer, Hoffmann quickly came under Schoenberg's influence. His later compositions show a debt to serialism, but also include aleatory features. The bulk of his output, however, including his electronic music, is based on the concept of music as 'tonsprache'. During the early 1970s he wrote conceptual pieces influenced by the Fluxus movement. After 1980 he composed a series of works dedicated to the memory of the dead, or reflecting (in a non-restaurative sense) endangered traditions. (See LZMO.)

WORKS
Orch: Prelude and Double Fugue, str, 1944; Vn Conc., 1948; Piece, 1952; Pf Conc., 1953--4; Vc Conc., 1956--9; Piece [no.2], 1961; Music, str, 1970--71; Souffleur [without cond.], 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--83; 2 Poems (A. Giraud), 1v, fl + pic, b cl, vn, va, vc, pf, 1986; Lacrymosa '91 (H. Heine), chorus, orch, 1990; 2 Songs (F. Ruckert, Heine), S, str trio, perc, 1990 [arr. chbr orch, 1991]; Die Heimkehr (G. Trakl), 1v, double chorus, orch, 1997
Chbr and solo inst: Str Qt no.1, 1947; Trio, vn, b cl, pf, 1948; Duo, va, vc, 1949; Duo, vn, pf, 1949, rev. 1965; Pf Qt, 1950; Str Qt no.2, 1950; Tripartita, vn, 1950; Str Trio, 1963; Decadanse, 10 players, 1972; Str Qt no.3 'on revient toujours', 1972--4; Changes, chimes, 1974; Notturno [Str Qt no.5], double str qt, 1995; Str Qt no.6 'Anbruch-Einbruch-Abbruch', 1999
Kbd: Sonata, pf, 1945--6; 3 Small Pieces, pf, 1947; Fantasy and Fugue, org, 1951; Variations no.1, pf, 1951; Sonatina, pf, 1952; Passacaglia, org, 1953; MONO/POLY, pf, 1994
El-ac: In memoriam patris, tape, 1976; Str Qt no.4 '(scordatura -- trompe l'oreille)', str qt, cptr, 1977

REINHARD KAPP