Der Mannstolle (The Man-Mad Man) is the twenty-fourth in a series of short works for solo instrument based upon characters from Der Ohrenzeuge: Fünfzig Charaktere (Earwitness: Fifty Characters), written in 1974 by the Bulgarian-born British-Austrian novelist Elias Canetti (1905-1994). Canetti’s distinctive studies incorporate poetic imagery, singular insights, and unabashed wordplay to create fifty ironic paradigms of human behavior. This collection, begun in 1997, was inspired by the vividly surreal depictions of Canetti’s characters, and comprises twenty-two solo works to date—composed for familiar instruments such as violin, guitar, piano, and trombone, as well as less common instruments such as ocarina, cimbalom, glass harmonica, and carillon. In Canetti’s description of this character, the Man-mad Man “gave his mother a lot of trouble when he tried to get out of her womb… he scratched and knocked from the inside…. [He] got into fistfights right and left as a child, he hit away at anybody who wanted anything from him…. He was drawn to people who were doing well, he overlooked people who were doing badly… He knew every mercenary leader in the world personally [and] took weapons to his heart, acquired a few, utilized them, and bought and sold them with increasing self-confidence and impudence.”

Der Mannstolle was completed in September 2025 and composed for percussionist Dave Hall.