Melchior Hoffmann (composer)

Georg Melchior Hoffmann (c. 1679 – 6 October 1715) was a Baroque composer who was influential as the leader at the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. Some of his compositions have been mistaken for those of Johann Sebastian Bach. Biography Hoffman was born sometime around 1679 (or 1685 according to some sources) in Bärenstein (now part of Altenberg), Saxony, Germany. His first musical service was as a choirboy in Dresden, under the tutelage of Johann Christoph Schmidt. Hoffmann succeeded Telemann as director of the Collegium Musicum in 1705, a position that did not end until Hoffman’s death ten years later. In this position he became an educator, and his students included Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. Other responsibilities included being the organist at the Neukirche, and director of the Leipzig civic opera, for which he composed several works. He is known to have journeyed to England sometime around the years 1709–1710. In 1713 he began to suffer from the malady which would eventually prove fatal. are likely works by Hoffmann, and of more positive identification is a Magnificat in A minor for solo soprano and small group, which during the 19th century was assigned a BWV number of BWV An