Model and Emulation: Beethoven's Grande Sonate pour Pianoforte et Violoncelle and E.T.A. Hoffmann's Grand Trio

Abstract

While scholars of musicology have viewed E.T.A. Hoffmann primarily as a brilliant critic of some of Beethoven's major works and as an important literary figure, Hoffmann regarded himself chiefly as a musician. Yet there is a considerable gap between Hoffmann the brilliant Beethoven critic and Hoffmann the suspiciously unoriginal instrumental composer. The unmistakable parallels between Beethoven's Op. 69 cello sonata and Hoffmann's Grand Trio, composed shortly after the publication of the cello sonata, are not likely to be purely accidental. The strong structural parallels between the two works, not to mention Hoffmann's astonishing compositional swiftness, leave little room for doubt that he had imitated his great predecessor.