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Austrian composer. The most significant 19th century creator of late German songs, lydes.

Hugo Filip Jakob Wolff was born in 1860. March 13 In the town of Vindisgraz, then in the Austrian Empire (now Sloven Gradec, Slovenia). His mother Katarina Niusbaumer (1824-1903) came from the Slovene Yeomanry. His father, the German Filipas Wolff (1828-1887), inherited the leather manufacturing manufactory in Windisch-Grass founded by his grandfather and was a self-taught musician who knew how to play various instruments. Hugo was the fourth child in the family (out of eight, two died in childhood). Hugas was taught music by his father and in primary school. He played the violin in the family band. in 1868 Hugo first visited the theater in Klagenfurt, where Donizetti's opera Belisarius was staged. The child was so affected by the music that he was able to play parts of the piece from memory when he returned home. in 1870 he studied at Grace, 1871-73. − in a Benedictine monastery, about 30 km from home, where he played the organ and took part in a piano potpourri based on the operas of Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini and Gunn. in 1873 he started attending school in Malburg (now Maribor) for a period of two years. Due to his inclination towards music, he did not succeed in conventional studies. His father considered music to be only a leisure activity that could not be used for a living, and opposed Hugo's desire to study at the Vienna Conservatory. Hugo dedicated his first piano sonata and second piano variation opus to his father. After his father finally agreed in 1875 in September, Hugo started his studies in Vienna.

At the Vienna Conservatory, H. Wolff studied piano with Wilhelm Schenner, harmony and composition with Robert Fuchs. At first, he was good at studies. As an advanced student, he started his studies in the second year, met G. Mahler, met R. Wagner, who had come to Vienna, to whom he showed his works and declared himself a Wagnerian. R. Wagner probably did not study his works, but he encouraged the young student. A little later, H. Wolf began to conflict with the management of the conservatory and was expelled from it for "violations of order", although he later announced that he left the conservatory because of its conservatism. in 1877 he returned home and later that year his father allowed him to return to Vienna to continue his career as a private music teacher. Because of his character, H. Wolff was not very suitable for this job, but he succeeded. The fact that he was short (154 cm) probably contributed to this, which made it easy for him to get along with children. The children's parents were wealthy and supported their music teacher, allowed them to use libraries, and took them to theater and opera productions together. This had a decisive impact on the life of H. Wolf - in 1878. he visited a brothel with one sponsor, where he probably contracted syphilis, which largely led to the composer's death in 1897. went crazy in 1903 died an early death. At the time, he was in love with local society beauty Vali Frank and had to abandon these ambitions. This probably pushed H. Wolff to create more German songs, melodies, which he wrote based on R. Schumann's examples. in 1879 he chatted with J. Brahms and was dissatisfied with the old composer's advice. At that time, mood swings became recurring in H. Wolff's life. After periods of depression, brighter periods followed, during which the composer created intensively.

in 1881 H. Wolff was employed as a Kapellmeister in Salzburg, but he returned to Vienna the following year. The disgruntled father wrote that H. Wolff "is more attuned than our piano" and compared him to Sisyphus. The composer created songs based on the texts of Joseph von Eichendorff and Robert Reinick. Despite the volatility of his character, H. Wolf kept many friends, in 1884-1887 he worked as a music critic for Wiener Salonblatt magazine. Penthesileia, a symphonic poem based on Heinrich von Kleist's play, was dismissed in a Vienna theater after the entire orchestra had finished rehearsing the work and started laughing. in 1887 In May, H. Wolff's father died and this was followed by a period of about 1 year, during which the composer, affected by his father's death, did not compose anything. in 1888 composed songs based on the lines of Eduard Friedrich Mörike had great success in Vienna, he began to become more widely known. He composed 51 songs by J. V. Gėtė and 44 songs based on poems by Spanish poets. 1892−1894 H. Wolf lived through a period of depression. in 1895 wrote the first and only completed opera, Corregidor, in 1896. completed the set of "Italian Songs".

in 1897 H. Wolf began to show signs of mental instability. The turning point came when Gustav Mahler, then director of the Vienna State Opera, announced that his opera Corregidor would not be staged. Wolff imagined that he had ousted Mahler and become the director of the theater himself. To his horrified friends, he began playing parts of his second and unfinished opera, Manuel Venegas, on the piano. This scene later served as the scene of the madness of T. Mano's hero A. Leverkiūnas in the novel "Doctor Faust". H. Wolff was locked up in an insane asylum, from which he accused his friends of "betrayal" in letters. After the situation improved, H. Wolff was released from the insane asylum, visited health resorts, but in 1898 In October, at his own request, he was placed in an insane asylum in Vienna. His friends arranged for him to have a large room with a piano and a view of St. Stephen's Cathedral, but the composer had lost all ability to compose. He began to think of the view through the window as a painting. H. Wolf died in 1903. February 22 He was buried in Vienna's Central Cemetery next to the graves of Schubert and Beethoven. His longtime lover and supporter, Melanie Köchert, attended him until his death and then succumbed to melancholy and committed suicide in 1906. March 21 jumping out the window. H. Wolf left about 300 songs, many of which were published only after his death.