E. T. A. Hoffmann is rightly regarded as one of the great writers of German Romanticism and not as one of the great composers of the era. Nevertheless, the trained lawyer and later Prussian chamber court judge repeatedly tried to earn his living as a composer and conductor, as he considered music to be the most romantic and therefore the highest of all arts. And he proved that he understood the craft of composing in over 70 compositions of almost all genres.