Graben-Hoffmann, Gustav (Heinrich), (properly, Gustav Heinrich Hoffmann,)

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Graben-Hoffmann, Gustav (Heinrich), (properly, Gustav Heinrich Hoffmann,)

Graben-Hoffmann, Gustav (Heinrich), (properly, Gustav Heinrich Hoffmann,) German composer; b. Bnin, near Posen, March 7, 1820;d. Potsdam, May 20, 1900. He studied with his father and with other teachers in Posen, then taught music in various localities in eastern Germany. In 1843 he settled in Berlin, and in 1850 he founded a Musikakademie fur Damen. He then went to Leipzig, where he studied composition with Moritz Hauptmann. In 1869 he returned to Berlin, where he taught singing. He composed industriously; including a number of songs, which he was compelled to publ. at his own expense, despite economic hardships; of these, 500,000 Teufel had a great vogue. He also publ. singing manuals: Die Pflege der Singstimme (1865), Das Studium des Gesangs (1872), and Pmktische Methode als Grundlage fiir den Kunstgesang (1874).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire