E. T. A. Hoffmann  

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Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (January 24, 1776June 25, 1822), better known by his pen name E. T. A. Hoffmann, was a Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist.

Hoffmann's stories were tremendously influential in the 19th century, and he is one of the key authors of the Romantic movement. The conte fantastique was introduced in France by Jean-Jacques Ampère with the latter's 1829 translation of Hoffmann's Fantasy Pieces in the Manner of Callot (1814). Whether American author Edgar Allan Poe was influenced by Hoffmann, remains debatable.

Contents

Hoffmann's work was so influential that it has been adapted into oblivion

Below is an extremely interesting quote (from the ever reliable tabula-rasa site) on oblivion and intertextuality. Some authors are apparently so popular that their work does not survive with the name of the author attached to it, but rather through an osmotic process which dissolves the works in public consciousness. Another example of this process in the history of European literature may have been Eugène Sue in France.

"Hoffmann is one of those artists whose works were so influential in their own day that they have been adapted into oblivion. Certainly it is fair to say that more people have read Freud's essay or the numerous commentaries on that than Der Sandmann, or seen Tchaikowsky's Nutcracker Suite than read Nussknacker und Mausekonig, or Wagner's Die Meistersingers von Nuremburg than Meister Martin Der Kupfner und Sine Gesellen. Of course, we all know the stories and generally yes, would consider them to have just that touch of something uncanny." --http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Hoffmann.html [Dec 2006]

Works

Literary

  • Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (collection of previously published stories, 1814)
    • Ritter Gluck, Kreisleriana, Don Juan, Nachricht von den neuesten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza
    • Der Magnetiseur, Der goldne Topf (revised in 1819), Die Abenteuer der Sylvesternacht
  • Die Elixiere des Teufels (1815)
  • Nachtstücke (1817)
    • Der Sandmann, Das Gelübde, Ignaz Denner, Die Jesuiterkirche in G.
    • Das Majorat, Das öde Haus, Das Sanctus, Das steinerne Herz
  • Seltsame Leiden eines Theater-Direktors (1819)
  • Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober (1819)
  • Die Serapionsbrüder (1819)
    • Der Einsiedler Serapion, Rat Krespel, Die Fermate, Der Dichter und der Komponist
    • Ein Fragment aus dem Leben dreier Freunde, Der Artushof, Die Bergwerke zu Falun, Nußknacker und Mausekönig (1816)
    • Der Kampf der Sänger, Eine Spukgeschichte, Die Automate, Doge und Dogaresse
    • Alte und neue Kirchenmusik, Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen, Das fremde Kind
    • Nachricht aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes, Die Brautwahl, Der unheimliche Gast
    • Das Fräulein von Scuderi, Spielerglück (1819), Der Baron von B.
    • Signor Formica, Zacharias Werner, Erscheinungen
    • Der Zusammenhang der Dinge, Vampirismus, Die ästhetische Teegesellschaft, Die Königsbraut
  • Prinzessin Brambilla (1820)
  • Lebensansichten des Katers Murr (1820)
  • Die Irrungen (1820)
  • Die Geheimnisse (1821)
  • Die Doppeltgänger (1821)
  • Meister Floh (1822)
  • Des Vetters Eckfenster (1822)

Musical

Vocal Music

  • Messa d-moll (1805)
  • Trois Canzonettes à 2 et à 3 voix (1807)
  • 6 Canzoni per 4 voci alla capella (1808)
  • Miserere b-moll (1809)
  • In des Irtisch weiße Fluten (Kotzebue), Lied (1811)
  • Recitativo ed Aria „Prendi l’acciar ti rendo“ (1812)
  • Tre Canzonette italiane (1812); 6 Duettini italiani (1812)
  • Nachtgesang, Türkische Musik, Jägerlied, Katzburschenlied für Männerchor (1819-21)

Works for stage

  • Die Maske (Libretto: E. T. A. Hoffmann), Singspiel (1799)
  • Die lustigen Musikanten (Libretto: Clemens Brentano), Singspiel (1804)
  • Bühnenmusik zu Zacharias Werners Trauerspiel „Das Kreuz an der Ostsee“ (1805)
  • Liebe und Eifersucht (Calderón and August Wilhelm Schlegel) (1807)
  • Arlequin, Ballettmusik (1808)
  • Der Trank der Unsterblichkeit (Libretto: Julius von Soden), romantische Oper (1808)
  • Wiedersehn! (Libretto: E. T. A. Hoffmann), Prolog (1809)
  • Dirna (Libretto: Julius von Soden), Melodram (1809)
  • Bühnenmusik zu Julius von Sodens Drama „Julius Sabinus“ (1810)
  • Saul, König von Israel (Libretto: Joseph von Seyfried), Melodram (1811)
  • Aurora (Libretto: Franz von Holbein) heroische Oper (1812)
  • Undine (Libretto: Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué), Zauberoper (1814)
  • Der Liebhaber nach dem Tode (beginning only)

Instrumental

  • Rondo für Klavier (1794/95)
  • Ouvertura. Musica per la chiesa d-moll (1801)
  • Klaviersonaten: A-Dur, f-moll, F-Dur, f-moll, cis-moll (1805-1808)
  • Große Fantasie für Klavier (1806)
  • Sinfonie Es-Dur (1806)
  • Harfenquintett c-moll (1807)
  • Grand Trio E-Dur (1809)
  • Walzer zum Karolinentag (1812)
  • Teutschlands Triumph in der Schlacht bei Leipzig, (by "Arnulph Vollweiler", 1814; lost)
  • Serapions-Walzer (1818-1821)

Hoffmann wrote novels and short stories, and he composed music, including an opera, Undine (1814). However, when reading the original text of E. T. A. Hoffmann's stories, one soon realizes that these stories were conceived and written at a very sensitive time politically. Comparable messages were expressed in earlier animal stories such as Reinicke Fuchs or Aesop's Fables. His most familiar story is Nussknacker und Mausekönig ("Nutcracker and Mouse King", 1816), which inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker (1892). His story Der Sandmann ("The Sandman", 1816) similarly inspired Delibes's ballet Coppélia (1870).

The Nutcracker story is full of charming mimed phantasies with Marie (Clara in the ballet), Fritz and Pate Drosselmayr, the mean Mouse King and the popular Nutcracker. Many versions of have been published as children's books. Nutcracker performances have become a yearly feature in many cities around Christmas. Yet these stories, as with the majority of his literary work, point beyond themselves in philosophical terms; Hoffmann invariably moves into territory where an exploration of the nature of Selfhood, Art and value-judgements are required in order for the reader to enjoy Hoffmann's writings more fully. Stories are, in their various media, the ultimate form of self-definition and world-interpretation; it is through stories that Hoffmann expresses his aesthetic, ethical and political concerns. Moreover, the original Hoffmann stories (including the Nutcracker) often have dark themes.

Jean-Jacques Ampère, le fantastique and E. T. A. Hoffmann

The conte fantastique was introduced in France by Jean-Jacques Ampère with his 1829 translation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's Fantasy Pieces in the Manner of Callot (1814). --page 36 of Jazz Age Catholicism: Mystic Modernism in Postwar Paris, 1919-1933 (2005) - Stephen Schloesser



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "E. T. A. Hoffmann" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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