E. T. A. Hoffmann is rightly regarded as one of the great writers of German Romanticism, rather than as one of the major composers of the period. Nevertheless, the trained jurist and later Prussian judge repeatedly sought to earn his living as a composer and conductor, since he considered music to be the most romantic-and therefore the highest-of all the arts. That he was thoroughly versed in the craft of composition is evident from the more than seventy works he wrote in almost every musical genre.