Franz Anton Hoffmeister was born in Rottenburg am Neckar and went to Vienna to learn the law, leaving in 1778 to work as Kapellmeister for a nobleman in Hungary. He returned to Vienna in 1784, where he set up a music publishing company, forming a strong relationship with Mozart. Hoffmeister turned over all of his business to Artaria in 1795. He began another publishing house in 1800 with the Leipzig organist Ambrosius Kühnel, a company eventually purchased by C.F. From Peters. Hoffmeister quit Leipzig and, in 1805, moved back to Vienna. He has made contributions to multiple music styles and composed operettas, Singspiel, and operas for the stage and other holy and secular vocal music. Hoffmeister wrote 44 symphonies for the ensemble, 13 of which were lost and 15 of which were written. With several string quartets and flute quartets, among many other compositions, including trios, duo sonatas, and violin or flute sonatas, he was incredibly prolific in chamber music, all very much in the agreed style of his period.