Born: December 21, 1895 - Barmen, Germany
Died: August 31, 1949 - Berlin, Germany

Paul Höffer was a German composer and teacher. He studied with Georgii, Bölsche, and Abendroth at the Cologne Conservatory, and with Schreker at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he joined the faculty as a piano instructor in 1923. From 1930 he taught composition and theory, and was made a professor in 1933. In 1948 he became its director. He made use of polytonality and atonality in his compositions.

Works

Dramatic:
Operas: Borgia (1931); Der falsche Waldemar (1934)
Ballet: Tanz um Liebe und Tod (1939).

Orchestral:
Sinfonische Ouverture (1922); Sinfonische Musik (1922); Symphony (1926-27); Sinfonie der grossen Stadt (1937); Symphonische Variationen uber einen Bass van Bach (1940); Serenade for Strings (1944); 2 piano concertos; Violin Concerto; Cello Concerto; Concerto for Oboe and Strings.

Chamber:
Wind Sextet; Piano Quintet; Wind Quintet; 3 string quartets; 2 piano trios; String Trio; Trio Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Piano; 2 sonatas for Solo Violin; much piano music.

Vocal:
4 oratorios: Der reiche Tag (1938), Vom edlen Leben (1942), Mysterium Liebe (1943), and Die letzte Stunde (1945-47); cantatas; choruses; songs.

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2006)

Use of Chorale Melodies in his works

Title

Chorale Melody

Year

Serenade (Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen), op.43, ob, vn, va, vc; Str Qt, op.46

O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

Links to other Sites

Bibliography

H. Tiessen: "Erinnerung an Paul Höffer," Musica, X (1956)