WOLF, Hugo. Austrian composer: h. Windischgraz, Styria. 13 March 1860; d. Vienna, 22 Feb. 1%3. He received his early instruction on the piano and violin from his father, who was in the leather trade, but was deeply inter ested in music. He studied at the Vienna Con servatory in 1875-77, but was then dismissed for his supposed implication in a practical joke, and from this time had only self-instruction.
For some years he gave piano lessons and with some slight assistance from his father gained a hare subsistence. In 1884-87 he was musical critic on the Salonbiatt. He ardently cham pioned the music of Wagner and as bitterly attacked that of Brahms, with the result that he made many enemies, and in 1887 after the publication of 12 of his songs he abandoned his work on the Salonblatt to devote himself entirely to composition. His production was irregular, his highly emotional temperament, already foreshadowing the insanity that was to overtake him, spurring him at times to inces sant work and again he lapsed into utter in activity, at which periods he was subject to profound depression. His work, despite his dark moods and mad haste in production, main tained a steady high level that kept a devoted circle of friends, mainly critics and singers, about him; hut his irritability hindered his material success despite their efforts. His work was never financially successful and he lived in cheap lodgings until 1896 when his friends bought a house for him and installed him in it. He enjoyed it only a year before insanity over took him and he was placed in an asylum. A temporary improvement caused his release some months later, but after attempting suicide by drowning he asked to be returned to the asylum, where he died four years later. His fame
rests securely upon his songs, of which he wrote 266, and which give him rank as one of the greatest of song-writers. His success was due not alone to his mastery of the art of composition but to a broad knowledge and love of literature. Superbly original, gifted with rare poetic insight and a high dramatic sense, his music invariably expresses the meaning of the poem set to it, as fully as if words and music were evolved simultaneously from his own brain. He scorned the art which made the words of a song a mere vehicle to carry the music, but while faithfully interpreting the sense of the verse he developed a breadth of style and intense dramatic power that leave him unrivaled among song-writers. His work at a composer was practically at an end in 1891. His works include IMorike (43 songs); 'Fichendorff Lieder' (20 songs); 'Goethe I.ieder. (51 songs); 'Spanisches Liederspiel' (44 songs): 'Italienisches Liederbuch' (1st part 22 songs; 2d part 24 songs); he wrote also settings for 13 lyrics by different authors, !several choral works and orchestral pieces, and the opera 'Der Corregidor.' which was suc cessfully produced in 1895. Consult Decsey. F.., 'Hugo ‘Volf ' (4 vols., 1903-06); Von Hellmer, E., 'Hugo Wolf' (1912); Heckel. K.. 'Hugo Wolf in seine= Verhiltniss zu Richard Wagner' I Munich 1905); Baden and Werner, 'Hugo %Volts musikalische Kritiken' (Leipgiz 1911); Newman. 'Hugo Wol f ( London 1907 ) ; Schmitz, E., 'Hugo Wolf' (Leipzig 1907).