Gustav Graben-Hoffmann
Gustav Graben-Hoffmann, born Gustav Hoffmann, was a German composer, singer, and music teacher. He was born in Poznan on March 7, 1820, and died in Potsdam on May 21, 1900.
He graduated from a teachers’ seminary in Bydgoszcz. From 1840 to 1843 he worked as a cantor in Szubin, near Bydgoszcz, and later as a schoolteacher in Poznan. He moved to Berlin in 1843 to continue his musical studies in singing and composition, became a soloist with the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, and taught music in Potsdam. After 1848, a serious illness forced him to stop giving solo concert performances.
He later continued his composition studies, including in Leipzig with Moritz Hauptmann. In 1869 he returned to Berlin and opened a singing school for women. From the early 1880s he lived and worked in Dresden and Potsdam.
Graben-Hoffmann wrote more than one hundred vocal works, mostly songs, especially comic songs and songs for children. His compositions included Six Songs, op. 1; Flying Leaves: Seven Songs, op. 6; The Princess Ilse, op. 8; Three Duets, op. 17; My Rest Is Gone, op. 65; and You Are Like a Flower, op. 74. He also wrote works on music theory and teaching.