Born in Rottenburg am Neckar, Franz Anton Hoffmeister went to Vienna to study law, leaving in 1778 to serve as Kapellmeister to a nobleman in Hungary. By 1784 he was back in Vienna, where he set up a music publishing business, establishing a close association with Mozart. In 1795 he signed much of his business over to Artaria. In 1800 he started another publishing enterprise with the Leipzig organist Ambrosius Kühnel, a business which later was taken over by C.F. Peters. Hoffmeister left Leipzig and returned to Vienna in 1805. He published works by many of his contemporaries.

Vocal and Instrumental Music
Hoffmeister contributed to many genres of music. For the theatre he wrote operettas, Singspiel and operas, as well as other sacred and secular vocal music. For the orchestra he composed 44 symphonies, 13 of which are lost and 15 published. He was particularly prolific in chamber music, with a quantity of string quartets and flute quartets among many other works, including trios, duo sonatas, and violin or flute sonatas, all very much in the accepted style of his time.