Wolfgang Hofmann

Wolfgang Hofmann, Music Director of the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim (Kurpfalz Chamber Orchestra (Mannheim)) since 1959, was born the son of a musician in Karlsruhe in 1922. He studied in Leipzig, subsequently beginning his career as a violinist in that city's renowned Gewandhaus Orchestra. After an eight year interruption caused by military service and internment as a prisoner of war he then joined a series of orchestras, advancing to the position of concert master of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. The composer Wolfgang Hofmann has emerged from the tradition of Hindemith and Bartók, a process he has described in his book "Golden Mean and Composition", which undertakes the task of describing a new set of principles for organizing musical material. His three movement "Concerto Gregorianico" for trumpet and string orchestra (published by C. F. Peters) is a typical example of the hexaphonic style based on the propotions of the golden mean. As the title states, significant melodic elements have been drawn from Gregorian chant.