Page "Hugo Wolf" Paragraph 5

After eight months with his family, he returned to Vienna to teach music.

Though his fiery temperament was not ideally suited to teaching, Wolf's musical gifts, as well as his personal charm, earned him attention and patronage.

Support of benefactors allowed him to make a living as a composer, and a daughter of one of his greatest benefactors inspired him to write, Vally (" Valentine ") Franck, his first love, with whom he was involved for three years.

During their relationship, hints of his mature style would become evident in his Lieder.

Wolf was prone to depression and wide mood swings, which would affect him all through his life.

When Franck left him just before his 21st birthday, he was despondent.

He returned home, although his family relationships were also strained ; his father was still convinced his son was a ne ' er-do-well.

His brief and undistinguished tenure as second Kapellmeister at Salzburg only reinforced this opinion: Wolf had neither the temperament, the conducting technique nor the affinity for the decidedly non-Wagnerian repertoire to be successful, and within a year had again returned to Vienna to teach in much the same circumstances as before.