A Reflection On Paul Hindemith

A Reflection On Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was revolutionary and a musical genius. Many people who lived around the same time saw him as nothing more than an untalented noisemaker. Granted, these people didn’t have all of the various forms of music that we have today, but untalented would not be a word I would use to describe Paul Hindemith. He helped begin the last great change in classical music from the Romantic Era, which was very tonal and diatonic, to 20th Century Modern Music, which is extremely atonal. Diatonic means within in the key. In other words, everything sounds nice and pretty. There are no weird noises, no funny pitches. Atonal itself is defined as the avoidance of the traditional musical tonality, or in layman’s terms, it sounds very weird. Paul Hindemith was born in the German State of Hesse in 1885, and grew up in Germany. After he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Frankfurt-am-Main, he was appointed conductor of the opera orchestra (1915-1923). In 1921, he also helped organize the famous Amar-Hindemith Quartet, in which he played viola. In 1927, he became the composition teacher at the Musikhochschuk in Berlin (Germany). In 1934, Hitler banned his work in Germany because of its “extreme modernism”. Around the same time, Hindemith was forced to flee the country of his birth after being openly Heppner - 2 opposed to Hitler and the doctrines of Goebbels. (Emory University, website). The doctrines were documents written by Dr. Joseph Goebbels recording the history of the Nazi party (Encyclopedia Britanica Online). In late 1939, he moved to the United States, and became the composition professor at Yale University. He was only there until World War II ended. After the war, he returned to Europe to take the position of the professor of composition at Zurich University.

 He died from a heart attack in a hospital in Frankfurt in December of 1963. The earliest known works of Hindemith were written in the year 1913. There were four main pieces, which were all written in a composition class taught under Arnold Mendelssohn at the Hoch Conservatory, which is located in Frankfurt, Germany. They’re all considered student works. That creates a problem for historians, because normally only one copy was written. All of his early music was lost, unpublished, or only bits and pieces. The first masterpiece he wrote that is still very popular today is the Concerto in Eb for Violoncello and Orchestra, Opus 3. Later on when asked about it, Hindemith stated, “I like this piece very much, particularly the first movement; the other two do not seem to me to have come off so well. I soon found out that I would have to try something else (The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music).” . Through his work, Hindemith, like most composers show what’s going on both in his life and in the world. His String Quartet in F Minor, Opus 10, also known as his First String Quartet, written between February and May of 1918 is a prime example of Heppner - 3 this. The end of WWI was nearing, and Germany was staring right into the face of defeat. This is portrayed with movements that are very dark and somber. Like any of the great composers, there are characteristics which make Hindemith’s music his. His melodies often incorporated an interval of a fourth, as well as diatonic seconds. These, especially in the Classical and Romantic Eras of Music, were considered unbreakable rules, especially when writing for singers. They were avoided whenever possible, due mainly to the fact that they’re extremely hard to hear and sing. Other unique characteristics of Hindemith’s music are the occasional use of Gregorian chants. An example of this is found in what is disputably his best Opera, Mathis der Maler. He frequently used dissonant counterpoint (a second melody which usually counters the main melody) with the use of fugato and imitative writing. A real turning point came in his music in the 1930’s, around the time Hitler came to power in Germany. In his early works, he experimented with expressionism, jazz, atonality, parody and satire.