View source for Gerard Hoffnung

{{Use British English|date=January 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name                = Gerard Hoffnung
| image               = GerardHoffnung.jpg
| image_size          = 
| alt                 = 
| caption             = 
| birth_name          = Gerhard Hoffnung
| native_name         = 
| native_name_lang    = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=y|1925|3|22}}
| birth_place         = [[Berlin]], Germany
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=y|1959|9|28|1925|3|22}}
| death_place         = [[Hampstead]], [[London]], England
| occupation          = Illustrator, musician
| module              =

{{Infobox musical artist|embed=yes
| background          = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| origin              = <!-- place where musical career began -->
| genre               = 
| instrument          = [[Tuba]]
| years_active        = <!-- YYYY–YYYY (or –present) -->
| label               = 
| associated_acts     = 
| notable_instruments =
}}

}}

'''Gerard Hoffnung''' (22 March 1925<ref name=dnb />{{spaced ndash}}28 September 1959) was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.

Raised in Germany, Hoffnung was brought to London as a boy to escape the [[Nazi]]s. Over the next two decades in England, he became known as a cartoonist, [[tuba]] player, impresario, broadcaster and [[raconteur]].

After training at two art colleges, Hoffnung taught for a few years, and then turned to drawing, on the staff of English and American publications, and later as a freelance. He published a series of cartoons on musical themes, and illustrated the works of novelists and poets.

In 1956 Hoffnung mounted the first of his "Hoffnung Festivals" in London, at which classical music was spoofed for comic effect, with contributions from many eminent musicians. As a broadcaster he appeared on [[BBC]] panel games, most notably 'One Minute Please' (the forerunner of '[[Just a Minute]]'), where he honed the material for one of his best-known performances, his speech at the [[Oxford Union]] in 1958.

==Early years==
Born in Berlin,{{#tag:ref|It was Hoffnung's practice to assert that he was born at the age of two.<ref name=decca/><ref>Interview with Charles Richardson, BBC Radio Collection CD (2002), {{ISBN|9780563536758}}</ref>|group= n}} and named Gerhard, Hoffnung was the only child of Jewish parents, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung.<ref name=dnb>[[Richard Ingrams|Ingrams, Richard]]. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37558 "Hoffnung, Gerard (1925–1959)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 17 March 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> He was sent to England, where he attended [[Bunce Court School]] in 1938.<ref name="km-bellew">Bellew,Lesley. "Anna's children", ''Kent Messenger'', ''Blitz Spirit'', special souvenir supplement, 4 February 2011, p.&nbsp;11</ref> In 1939, his parents left Germany; his father went to [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] to enter the family's banking business. Gerard went with his mother to London, where she rented a house in [[Hampstead Garden Suburb]], where Hoffnung lived for the rest of his life. In 1939 he enrolled at [[Highgate School]], where, according to one biographer, he was "remembered for his anarchic spirit".<ref name=dnb/> Among the artists he most admired when he was growing up was [[Walter Trier]], long associated with ''[[Lilliput (magazine)|Lilliput]]'' magazine.<ref name=times>"Mr Gerard Hoffnung – Artist and Musician", ''The Times'', 29 September 1959, p. 17</ref> Hoffnung had his first cartoon published in the same publication while he was still at school.<ref name=dnb/>

After leaving Highgate, Hoffnung studied at [[Hornsey College of Art]], but was expelled for his lack of gravity in the life class.{{#tag:ref|Hoffnung, according to ''The Guardian'', "drew the supercilious expression and the ungainly body of a model in the life class, surrounded by the fixed subservient stare of students behind canvases."<ref name=kitchen>Kitchen, Myfanwy. "Hoffnung's Imagination", ''The Guardian'', 15 September 1959, p. 6</ref>|group= n}} He then attended [[Harrow School of Art]],<ref name=grove>[[Fritz Spiegl|Spiegl, Fritz]], [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/13164 "Hoffnung, Gerard"], Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 March 2013 {{subscription required}}</ref> after which he became a schoolmaster. He was art master at [[Stamford School]] (1945–46) and assistant art master at [[Harrow School]] (1948), with an intervening and overlapping spell as a staff artist on the London ''[[The Evening News (London newspaper)|Evening News]]''.<ref name=who>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U238677  "Hoffnung, Gerard"], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2013 {{subscription required}}</ref> He was a staff artist to [[Cowles Media Company|Cowles Magazines Inc]] in New York in 1950, and otherwise pursued a career as a freelance cartoonist. He contributed to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'' and ''[[Tatler (1901)|The Tatler]]'',<ref name=dnb/> and to other British, continental, and American magazines.<ref name=who/> He also produced advertising work for [[Kia-Ora]], [[Guinness]], and other companies.<ref name=dnb/> He presented one-man exhibitions of his work, including one at the Little Gallery, Piccadilly (1949), and two at the [[Royal Festival Hall]] (1951 and 1956).<ref name=who/>

==Musical drawings==
In the words of his biographer [[Richard Ingrams]], Hoffnung
<blockquote>developed a distinctive style which owed something to the German illustrator [[Wilhelm Busch]]. He mainly drew with a mapping pen and Indian ink, and also used watercolours and wax crayons. His illustrations in colour for [[Colette]]'s libretto for [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s opera ''[[L'enfant et les sortilèges]]'' were outstanding.{{#tag:ref|These drawings were displayed at the Festival Hall to coincide with the first English performance of the opera, under [[Victor de Sabata]] in 1951.<ref>"The Bad-Tempered Boy", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 9 June 1951, p. 4</ref>|group= n}}</blockquote>

Much of Hoffnung's humour centred on the world of music, particularly the various instruments of the orchestra with which he was fascinated.<ref name=grove/> He published a series of books of cartoons poking gentle fun at conductors and orchestral instrumentalists. Examples include the drawing of a musician being devoured by the [[Serpent (instrument)|serpent]] he is trying to play;<ref>Hoffnung, unnumbered page in "The Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra" section</ref> another shows a singer whose waistcoat buttons are control knobs labelled On/off, ''ppp/fff'', Wobble, and Sobs.<ref name=fest>Hoffnung, unnumbered page in "The Hoffnung Music Festival" section</ref> He depicted [[Malcolm Sargent]] as ''"Elegantemente"'', conducting with a full-length mirror at the front of his rostrum.<ref name=fest/> After Hoffnung's death, some of the cartoons were turned into short animated films by [[Halas and Batchelor]] with music by [[Francis Chagrin]] in the television series ''Tales from Hoffnung'' (1965).<ref name=grove/>

==Broadcasts and concerts==
In 1950 Hoffnung began a career as a broadcaster for the [[BBC]], as both raconteur and regular contestant in panel games including ''[[Just a Minute|One Minute Please]]'', the predecessor of ''[[Just a Minute]]''.  He was, in the words of Ingrams, "a brilliant improviser with a dry wit and a masterly sense of timing".<ref name=dnb/>

Probably the best-known example of Hoffnung as a humorous speaker is an account of a bricklayer's misfortunes when lowering some bricks in a barrel from the top of a building. It was part of a speech to the [[Oxford Union]] on 4 December 1958.<ref>{{YouTube|id=OOGfg1B3ZMw|title=Gerard Hoffnung addressing the Oxford Union in 1958}}</ref> The derivation of the story is confused, but it first arises in the 1930s. It was published in ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' in 1940 as a letter from a naval officer who had supposedly received it from an enlisted man explaining his late return from leave. Hoffnung first saw the story in ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' in 1957;<ref>"Miscellany – Stoic", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 11 June 1957, p. 5</ref> the version printed there is identical with the text used by Hoffnung, except for the location, which he changed from [[Barbados]] to Golders Green. Hoffnung used the piece to warm up the audience before each recording session of ''One Minute, Please''. In these performances he perfected the timing before the Oxford Union speech. The story was part of his speech in a debate called ''Life Begins at 38'' and was recorded by the BBC.<ref name=decca/> The tale itself was not, Ingrams comments, especially funny, but "[Hoffnung's] manner and delivery reduced his audience to hysterics".<ref name=dnb/>
{{Listen|filename=Bricklayer.ogg|title=Excerpt from "The Bricklayer"|description=Excerpt from The Bricklayer – 266 kb|format=[[Ogg]]}} The tale was later cast into music as ''The Sick Note'' by Pat Cooksey, versions of which were popularized by several other performers including [[Seán Cannon]] and [[The Dubliners]].

Among Hoffnung's other well-known subjects were his supposedly helpful advice to tourists in London ("Have you tried the famous echo in the Reading Room of the British Museum?") and allegedly genuine letters in fallible English from continental hoteliers ("There is a French widow in every bedroom affording delightful prospects").<ref name=decca>Hoffnung at the Oxford Union. Decca DFE 8682 (1968)</ref>

In 1956 Hoffnung took part in one of the popular "April Fool's" concerts in [[Liverpool]], organised by [[Fritz Spiegl]]. He took up the idea, and presented a similar, but larger-scale, concert at the Festival Hall in November the same year, in which Spiegl joined him.<ref>Shifrin, Malcolm. [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/mar/29/guardianletters1 "Musical fun"], ''The Guardian'', 29 March 2003</ref> The 1956 "[[Hoffnung Music Festival]]" played to a sell-out audience in the hall and to [[BBC]] viewers throughout Britain.<ref>"Caricature Concert", ''The Times'', 30 October 1956, p. 3</ref> The success of this concert led to two more Hoffnung Festivals, the second in 1958 and the third in 1961, presented as a tribute after his death. They featured contributions from distinguished musicians. [[Donald Swann]] revised [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]]'s  ''[[Symphony No. 94|Surprise]]'' Symphony to make it considerably more surprising.<ref name=ivan/> [[Malcolm Arnold]] wrote ''A Grand, Grand Overture'', scored for orchestra and [[vacuum cleaner]]s, and dedicated to US President [[Herbert Hoover|Hoover]].<ref>"A Musical Purge", ''The Times'', 14 November 1956, p. 3</ref>{{#tag:ref|Annetta Hoffnung recalled in 2009, "His new overture posed a problem, because, as well as full orchestra and organ, it called for three vacuum cleaners, a floor polisher and four rifles. The vacuum cleaners had to be in B flat and the floor polisher in G, and Gerard and Malcolm spent days trying to find just the right ones."<ref name=ivan>Hewett, Ivan.
[http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:DSTC&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=12AA79F145D725D0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA  "Hoovers fill a Proms comedy vacuum"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 10 September 2009</ref>|group= n}} [[Franz Reizenstein]]'s ''Concerto Popolare'' featured a battle between the soloist, playing the [[Piano Concerto (Grieg)|Grieg Piano Concerto]], and the orchestra, determinedly playing [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)|Tchaikovsky]].<ref>"Another Evening of Hoffnung", ''The Times'' 11 February 1963, p. 5</ref> [[William Walton|Sir William Walton]] conducted a one-note excerpt from his cantata'' [[Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)|Belshazzar's Feast]]'': the word "Slain!" shouted by the chorus.<ref>"Wit That Makes You Think", ''The Times'', 29 November 1961, p. 15</ref> After Hoffnung's death, similar concerts were promoted by his widow, Annetta, and collaborators.<ref>A Hoffnung Festival, given at the Festival Hall in 1988, was preserved on CD: Decca 425 401-2 DH2, re-issued in 1996 as 444 921-2 DF2</ref>

Hoffnung learned to play the tuba well enough to play the solo part in the [[Tuba Concerto (Vaughan Williams)|Tuba Concerto]] by [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] in a serious concert at the Festival Hall,<ref name=ad>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 31 May 1958, p. 2</ref> and was an active participant in Morley College Orchestra, a respected amateur ensemble in London.<ref name=ad/> He also played in the premiere of Malcolm Arnold's [[Toy Symphony (Arnold)|Toy Symphony]] at the [[Savoy Hotel]] on 28 November 1957.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HNCLqUq4F94C&dq=%22Malcolm+Arnold%22+%22Toy+Symphony%22+%22Cundell%22&pg=PA39 Craggs, Stewart R. ''Malcolm Arnold: A Bio-bibliography'' (1998), p 39]</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1952 Hoffnung married Annetta Perceval, ''née'' Bennett; they had two children,<ref>Sebba, Anne. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:LTIB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=135B498EFA426DC0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Still a blast: the brassy humour of Hoffnung"], ''The Times'', 1 March 2011</ref> Ben (Benedict) and Emily who became, respectively, a timpanist<ref>{{cite web |title=Meet the Musicians:Ben Hoffnung... |url=https://thehanoverband.com/beethoven-250-meet-the-musicians-ben-hoffnung-timpani/ |website=The Hanover band |date=March 2020 |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> and a sculptor.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Emily |first1=Hoffnung |title=Emily Hoffnung |url=http://emilyhoffnung.com/ |website=Emily Hoffnung |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> Hoffnung's uncle was [[Bruno Adler]],<ref name="km-bellew" /> a German art historian and writer who, during the war, wrote for the German language department of the [[BBC]].

In addition to his public persona as an eccentric and wit, Hoffnung had a deeply serious and moral side. He joined the [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]] in 1955 and was active in their prisoner visiting scheme. According to a biographical sketch by Joel Marks, first published in ''Essays in Arts and Sciences'' (University of New Haven, Volume XXI, 10/1992), "Hoffnung's outlook on race relations, homosexuality, nuclear disarmament, the treatment of animals (especially hunting) and, for that matter, the music of [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] and [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] [was] liberal and impassioned." A week before he died he took part in a show at the Festival Hall in aid of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]], along with [[Peggy Ashcroft]], [[Benjamin Britten]], [[C. Day Lewis]], [[Michael Redgrave]] and others.<ref>"Royal FestIval Hall, ''The Observer'', 20 September 1959, p. 24</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Hoffnung collapsed at his home on 25 September 1959, and died of a [[cerebral haemorrhage]] three days later in [[New End Hospital]] in [[Hampstead]] at the age of thirty-four.<ref name=dnb/> The obituarist in ''The Times'' concluded:
{{quote|Hoffnung was among other things an artist, a musician, a linguist, a raconteur, a Quaker, a ''bon viveur'', a prison visitor and a mime. It is usual to say that a man has left behind a gap that cannot be filled. For Gerard Hoffnung there would be needed a handful of men, all of them greatly gifted.<ref name=times/>|}}
Posthumous exhibitions of Hoffnung's work include those at the Berlin Festival (1964); the Brighton and Edinburgh festivals (1968); the [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]], New York (1970); the [[Royal Festival Hall]] (1984); and [[Orleans House Gallery]], Twickenham, London (1992).

A memorial tribute, ''O Rare Hoffnung'' was published in 1960 and included contributions from [[Malcolm Arnold]], [[John Dankworth]], [[William Mann (critic)|William Mann]], [[Ian Messiter]], [[Gerald Priestland]], [[Donald Swann]] and nineteen others.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/462508964 "O Rare Hoffnung"], WorldCat. Retrieved 17 March 2013</ref> Hoffnung's widow published a biography of him in 1988.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/223401834 " Gerard Hoffnung – his biography"], WorldCat. Retrieved 17 March 2013</ref> In 2009, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast ''Hoffnung – Drawn to Music'', a comedy drama written by Alan Stafford which featured [[Matt Lucas (comedian)|Matt Lucas]] as Hoffnung and [[Gina McKee]] as Annetta, with a cameo appearance by the real Annetta Hoffnung.<ref>Mahoney, Elizabeth. [https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2009/sep/29/afternoon-play-hoffnung "Radio Review"], ''The Guardian'', 29 September 2009</ref> In 1996 [[Humphrey Lyttelton]] recorded a portrait of Hoffnung entitled ''Hoffnung At Large'' for BBC Audiobooks, written by Judith Liddell-King.

==Recordings==
{{See also | Hoffnung Music Festival}}
*The Hoffnung Music Festival Concert (1956)
*The Hoffnung Interplanetary Music Festival (1958)
*Hoffnung at the Oxford Union (1960)
*The Hoffnung Astronomical Music Festival (1961)
*The Importance of Being Hoffnung (1968)
*Timeless Hoffnung (1970)
*Hoffnung (1973)
*Hoffnung's Music Festivals (1974)
*The Best of Hoffnung (1974)
*The Hoffnung Festival of Music (1988)
*Hoffnung's Music Festivals (1989)
*Hoffnung: A Last Encore (2002)

==Books==

===Drawings on musical subjects===
*The Maestro (1953)
*The Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra (1955)
*The Hoffnung Music Festival (1956)
*The Hoffnung Companion to Music (1957)
*Hoffnung's Musical Chairs (1958)
*Hoffnung's Acoustics (1959)
The six volumes were reissued as a uniform set in 2002 with forewords by [[Simon Rattle|Sir Simon Rattle]], [[Peter Ustinov]], [[Ronald Searle]], [[Harry Enfield]], [[Ian Hislop]], and Hoffnung's daughter, Emily.

===Other drawings, and posthumously published collections===
*Ho Ho Hoffnung (1958)
*Birds, Bees and Storks (1960)
*Hoffnung's Little Ones (1961)
*Hoffnung's Constant Readers (1962)
*Young Hoffnung – the early drawings of Gerard Hoffnung, 5 to 18 years (1984)
*Hoffnung's Happy Hamper (2002)

===Illustrator===
*The Right Playmate (by [[James Broughton]], 1951)
*Points for Parents (by [[Elizabeth Longford]], 1954)
*Bouverie Ballads (by [[Percy Cudlipp]], 1955)
*The Isle of Cats (by [[John Symonds]], 1955)
*Reigning Cats and Dogs (by Stanley Penn, 1959)	
*The Boy and the Magic (by [[Colette]], 1964 – Hoffnung's 1951 illustrations for ''L'enfant et les sortilèges'')

==Notes and references==
;Notes
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;References
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book | last=Hoffnung | first= Gerard| year= 1963 | title= The Penguin Hoffnung | location= Harmondsworth | publisher= Penguin | oclc= 68600959}}

== External links ==
* [https://gerardhoffnung.com/ Official Website]
* [https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hoffnung_gerard.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia article]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffnung, Gerard}}
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:British radio personalities]]
[[Category:Converts to Quakerism]]
[[Category:English cartoonists]]
[[Category:British comedy musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish caricaturists]]
[[Category:English classical tubists]]
[[Category:English humorists]]
[[Category:Jewish English musicians]]
[[Category:English Quakers]]
[[Category:English people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Humor in classical music]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Bunce Court School]]
[[Category:People educated at Highgate School]]
[[Category:People educated at Stamford School]]
[[Category:Artists from Berlin]]
[[Category:Musicians from Kent]]
[[Category:20th-century classical musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century English male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Quakers]]