Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen

Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen (6 July 1768, Durlach – 10 July 1830/9?, Darmstadt) was a German composer and virtuoso clarinetist who also played the harp, flute and basset horn, and worked as a translator and painter. In the late 1780s he traveled several times with concert tours in France, Spain and Italy, and after 1789 settled in Germany. Backofen worked in Gotha from 1806 to 1811, and became a court musician in Darmstadt in 1811. He authored several pedagogical textbooks and manuscripsts, particularly popular was Anweisung zur Klarinette (Neue teoretisch-prachtische Klarinett Schule) ('New Theoretical-Practical School of Clarinet') published in Leipzig in 1803. His year of death is not known with certainty; both 1839 and 1830 appeared in different sources. Many of his manuscripts had been lost or long out-of-print, but some texts and scores are available online.