Richard Hoffmann (20 April 1925 – 24 June 2021)[1] was an American composer, musicologist and educator.
The kaleidoscopic treatment of the musical substance in detail (fragmentation, juxtaposition, rotation); the confluence of a number of coequal contrasting sections (elision, dovetailing); the interaction of disparate elements; rhythmic dissonance; conflicting dynamics (even with sustained sonorities); the notation of each instrument on three staves (upper: sul ponticello or sul tasto, the middle: arco, the lower: pizzicato or col legno), and localized accelerandi and ritardandi – all are designed to create the maximum possible illusion of multidimensional movement and to emulate in sound the inherently unstable characteristics of a mobile.
This is done without recourse to the arbitrariness and forced spontaneity of improvisation, but rather, within the paradoxical framework of rigid control and matrix-like construction.
[1] His students included Jonathan Dawe, Pierre Jalbert, Stan Link, David Serkin Ludwig, Christopher Rouse, and Robert Spano just to name a few.
[1] Hoffmann received awards from the Fromm Music Foundation Commission in 1960 (Orchestral Piece No.