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Christmas Spirit 
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E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) Ernst Theodor Wilhelm (Amadeus) Hoffmann was born in Königsberg. In his youth he studied both sciences and arts - music, drawing, painting - and learned everything easily. He entered the university of Köningsberg where he studied law and had then an unsettled career. In 1802 he married, worked as a Prussian law officer and then had several positions as conductor, critic, and theatrical musical director in Bamberg and Dresden until 1814. He recognized that he would never be a great composer, so he turned to writing. In 1813 he had written on Beethoven: "Beethoven's music sets in motion the lever of fear, of awe, of horror, of suffering, and awakens just that infinite longing which is essence of romanticism." These same themes became central in his literary works. Hoffmann was part of the German Romantic period with his fantastic fairy tales and historical stories, and at the same time transcended Romanticism with his realistic, psychological depictions of highly gifted and artistic, yet tormented souls. The Nutcracker and The Mouse King written in 1816, was not so much a story for children as about children and mystical events during Christmas. Hoffmann died in Berlin from progressive paralysis on June 25, 1822. His tales, which weave the fantastic closely into real world, had enormous influence particularly in the United States, and affected the writings of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Hoffmann's opera The Water Sprite is still occasionally performed. [ Back to index ] |
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