Born Mar. 13, 1860, in Windischgraz (Slovenjgradec, Yugoslavia); died Feb. 22, 1903, in Vienna. Austrian composer and music critic.

Wolf studied at the Vienna Conservatory (1875-77). He collaborated on the weekly Wiener Salonblatt, in the pages of which he was very critical of J. Brahms. As a result there was prejudice towards Wolf in Vienna as a composer. His first mature works—songs for voice and piano based on poems by E. Morike, J. Eichendorff, and J. W. Goethe— were composed in 1888. In these pieces, following the example of R. Schumann and R. Wagner, Wolf strove to attain an organic fusion of music and words, along with a detailed psychological revelation of the text. Basing his work on speech intonations, the composer wrote a number of songs which are perceived as dramatic scenes. During the 1890’s, together with songs (based on words by G. Keller and Michelangelo; Spanish Songbook and Italian Songbook) Wolf turned to the genre of comic opera, dealing with everyday events (Der Corregidor, composed in 1895), and music drama (Manuel Venegas, composed in 1897, unfinished). He also wrote symphonic works (the poem Penthesilea, 1885; the Italian Serenade for small orchestra, 1892), a string quartet (1884), and a number of literary works. In 1898, Wolf was placed in a clinic for the mentally ill, where he later died.