Francis Hueffer (bornFranz Carl Christoph Johann Hüffer; 22 May 1845^[1] – 19 January 1889) was aGerman-English writer on music,music critic, andlibrettist.

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Hueffer was born inMünster,Kingdom of Prussia, on 22 May 1845 toJohann Hermann Hüffer, a politician and editor and his second wife Maria Theresia Julia (Julia) Kaufmann, sister ofLeopold Kaufmann, Chief Burgomaster (in German Oberbürgermeister) ofBonn and ofAlexander Kaufmann, poet and folklorist. He was the youngest of the ten children born to his parents' marriage. His father had had seven other children from his first marriage to Amalia Hosius. His paternal grandmother Maria Sophia Franziska Hüffer (née Aschendorff) was the daughter of Wilhelm Aschendorff, himself the son of the founder of Aschendorff Verlags (Aschendorff publishing house; nowAschendorff Group). He studied modernphilology and music inLondon,Paris,Berlin, andLeipzig, and earned a Ph.D. in 1869 from theUniversity of Göttingen for a critical edition of the works ofGuillem de Cabestant, a 12th-centurytroubadour.

Following his studies, he moved to London in 1869 as a writer on music, and from 1878 worked aschief music critic forThe Times, succeedingJames William Davison. He wrote a number of books on music, especially on music history and biography; edited theGreat Musicians series forNovello & Co; and translated the correspondence ofRichard Wagner andFranz Liszt to English. He also wrote thelibretti for several Englishoperas:Alexander Mackenzie'sColomba andThe Troubadour, andFrederic Hymen Cowen'sSleeping Beauty. Also succeeding Davison, he became editor of theMusical World in 1886 and actuated a more musically progressive attitude.^[2] He fell ill in the summer of 1888 and died of cancer on 19 January 1889.

Hueffer's wife,Catherine Madox Brown, was the daughter ofFord Madox Brown and the half-sister ofLucy Madox Brown and an artist and model associated with thePre-Raphaelites. Their sons,Ford Madox Hueffer (better known as Ford Madox Ford) andOliver Madox Hueffer, were writers and their daughterJuliet Catherine Emma Hueffer was the mother ofFrank Soskice.

• Richard Wagner and the Music of the Future (1874) (reissued byCambridge University Press, 2009;ISBN 978-1-108-00474-9)(Internet Archive)
• The Troubadours: A History of Provençal Life and Literature in the Middle Ages (1878)(Internet Archive)
• Musical Studies: A Series of Contributions, a collection of his articles fromThe Times andFortnightly Review (1880) (reissued byCambridge University Press, 2009;ISBN 978-1-108-00473-2)(Internet Archive)
• Wagner, in theGreat Musicians series (1881) (reissued byCambridge University Press, 2009;ISBN 978-1-108-00475-6)(Internet Archive)
• Italian and Other Studies (1883)(Google Books)
• Half a Century of Music in England: Essays Towards a History (1889; 2nd ed. 1898) (reissued byCambridge University Press, 2009;ISBN 978-1-108-00472-5)(Internet Archive)
• Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt (1889; as translator) (reissued byCambridge University Press, 2009;ISBN 978-1-108-00474-9) (Project Gutenberg:vol. 1;vol. 2)

• J. A. F. Maitland and John Warrack (2004). "Hueffer, Francis".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 28. p. 597.
• Theodore Baker and Alfred Remy, ed. (1919)."Hueffer, Francis".Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (3rd ed.). pp. 419–420.

• Works by or aboutFrancis Hueffer atWikisource
• Works by Francis Hueffer atProject Gutenberg
• Works by Francis Hueffer atFaded Page (Canada)
• Works by or about Francis Hueffer at theInternet Archive

• 1845 births
• 1889 deaths
• English music critics
• English music historians
• English music journalists
• English opera librettists
• Writers from Münster
• Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia
• University of Göttingen alumni
• 19th-century British journalists
• English male journalists
• English male dramatists and playwrights
• 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights
• 19th-century English male writers
• German music critics
• German music historians
• German music journalists
• German opera librettists
• German male journalists
• German male dramatists and playwrights
• 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights
• 19th-century German male writers
• People from the Province of Westphalia
• Immigrants to the United Kingdom

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