Hoffmann, Andreas H. M. 02/18/1950

Andreas H.M. Hoffmann was born in Mannheim in 1950. He grew up in Darmstadt, where he came into contact early with new music. Here he quickly learned to differentiate between concerts whose program was based only on the modernity of a fashionable "new music scene" and those with their own sonic world, for example the compositions of Janacek or Nono. Through his studies in Cologne in musicology, composition, German and philosophy Hoffmann acquired the ability to compose structurally rhythmic and harmonically varied works, which contain a plethora of variations and yet a complexity in their almost minimalist themes.



Thus it is no wonder that his String Trio (1994), composed for Alfred Lutz, has just as wide a range of motives as of emotional tension. He created here for the listener a comprehensible atmosphere of his own spiritual existential orientation at the time of the trio's composition. One should note that this trio uses a gamba quartet as model which he had written several years before. Through the transcription for violin, viola and violoncello Hoffmann was able to bring out his compositional ideas even more clearly and, especially in the fast section, to tailor urgent and stirring passages to the particular instrument. Hoffmann's compositional spectrum includes not only chamber music works of the highest quality, but extends also to songs, choral works and compositions for symphony orchestra.