Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith (November 16, 1895 – December 28, 1963) was a German composer, violist, teacher, theorist and conductor.

Hindemith's Music

Hindemith is seen by some as the most significant German composer of his time. His early works are in a late romantic idiom, and he later produced expressionist works, rather in the style of early Arnold Schoenberg, before developing a leaner, contrapuntally complex style in the 1920s, which some people found (and still find) difficult to understand. It has been described as neoclassical, but is very different from the works by Igor Stravinsky labelled with that term, owing more to the contrapuntal language of Bach than the Classical clarity of Mozart.

Related Topics:
Romantic - Arnold Schoenberg - Contrapuntally - Neoclassical - Igor Stravinsky - Bach - Mozart

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This new style can be heard in the series of works he wrote called Kammermusik from 1922 to 1927. Each of these pieces is written for a different small instrumental ensemble, many of them very unusual. Kammermusik No. 6, for example, is a concerto for the viola d'amore, an instrument which had not been in wide use since the baroque period, but which Hindemith himself played. He continued to write for unusual groups throughout his life, producing a sonata for double bass in 1949, for example.

Related Topics:
Concerto - Viola d'amore - Baroque - Sonata - Double bass

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Around the 1930s, Hindemith began to write less for chamber groups, and more for large orchestral forces. In 1933-35, Hindemith wrote his opera Mathis der Maler, based on the life of the painter Matthias Grünewald. Like many of Hindemith's works, it is respected in musical circles, but unpopular with audiences, and it is rarely staged. It combines the neo-classicism of earlier works with folk song. Hindemith turned some of the music from this opera into a purely instrumental symphony (also called Mathis der Maler), which is one of his more frequently performed works.

Related Topics:
Chamber - Orchestra - Opera - Mathis der Maler - Painter - Matthias Grünewald - Folk song - Symphony - Mathis der Maler

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Hindemith, like Kurt Weill and Ernst Krenek, wrote Gebrauchsmusik ("utility music"), music intended to have a social or political purpose and often intended to be played by amateurs. The concept was inspired by Bertolt Brecht. An example of this is his Trauermusik (Funeral Music), written in 1936. Hindemith was preparing a concert for the BBC when he heard news of the death of George V. He quickly wrote this piece for solo viola and string orchestra to mark the event, and the premiere was given on the same day. Hindemith later disowned the term Gebrauchsmusik, saying it was misleading.

Related Topics:
Kurt Weill - Ernst Krenek - Bertolt Brecht - BBC - George V

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In the late 1930s, Hindemith wrote a theoretical book The Craft of Musical Composition in which he ranks all musical intervals from the most consonant to the most dissonant. It laid out Hindemith's compositional technique he had been using throughout the 1930s and would continue to use for the rest of his life, and added to his reputation as a composer theoretically interesting, but lacking in emotional interest. His piano work of the early 1940s, Ludus Tonalis is seen by many as a further example of this. It contains twelve fugues, in the manner of Johann Sebastian Bach, each connected by an interlude during which the music moves from the key of the last fugue to the key of the next one.

Related Topics:
Intervals - Ludus Tonalis - Fugue - Johann Sebastian Bach - Key

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Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is probably the Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943. It takes melodies from various works by Weber, mainly piano duets, but also one from the overture to his incidental music for Turandot, and transforms and adapts them so that each movement of the piece is based on one theme.

Related Topics:
Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber - Melodies - Weber - Incidental music - Turandot

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In 1951, Hindemith completed his Symphony in B-flat. Scored for concert band, it was written for an occasion of guest conducting the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own". The piece is representative of his late works, exhibiting strong contrapuntal lines throughout, and is a cornerstone of the band repertoire.

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