3. The ‘new objectivity’.

The dominant artistic trend of the 1920s was the so-called Neue Sachlichkeit. The term, coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub originally in reference to the visual arts, refers to the simultaneous emergence of socio-political and artistic trends that emphasized the democratization of all areas of life. Neue Sachlichkeit thinking in music suggested that the style of a particular work should depend on the character and function chosen for it. Accordingly, Hindemith’s instrumental music of the period is somewhat eclectic, drawing on a wide variety of styles. The Kammermusiken nos.2–7 (1924–7), a series of concertos for individual solo instruments and chamber orchestra, exhibit a range of influences from neo-Baroque forms and developmental procedures to parodies of military marches, and from lyrical, intense nocturnes to waltzes. The Kammermusiken have been compared to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. Like them, they are scored for ensembles of solo instruments, in an individual and unmistakable combination in each work, and they demand high technical standards of concertante chamber-music playing. Hindemith uses all the notes of the chromatic scale, often even in the initial themes: the opening theme from Kammermusik no.6, for example, contains 11 different pitches. Hindemith transferred this concertante, soloistic technique to the standard orchestra in the Concerto for Orchestra (1925), a major work of the period, which Hans Engel judged to have ‘struck the mist-clouds of late Romantic emotional doodling like a bolt of lightening’ (see Bolín). He broke down the orchestral tutti into different groups of instruments, and gave the work a corresponding variety of types of form and texture. In the first movement, as in a Vivaldian concerto, a ritornello theme is articulated by a concertino of solo oboe, solo bassoon and solo violin. Moreover, Hindemith reinforced these neo-Baroque characteristics by the manner of his thematic invention and melodic Fortspinnung (ex.3). In the second movement Hindemith used the same thematic material, but here it loses all its neo-Baroque traits in the context of a wholly modern, wild and stormy musical process without any formal precedents. In this way, Hindemith made the choice of a specific musical style a matter of the composer’s decision. His treatment of the harmonic and tonal events is comparably discriminatory. If the first movement is stamped by modally coloured diatonicism, in the second the greater textural density almost turns the aural and harmonic events into pure noise, but without any systematic abandonment of the tonic-relatedness of the harmonic processes.

In vocal works the choice of style, marked by a predominant emphasis on absolute music, was to serve the interpretation of the text by subsuming its meaning into the fundamental structure. The unusual passacaglia form of the song ‘Die Darstellung Mariä im Tempel’ from Das Marienleben, for example, serves as a musical correlative to the grandiose structure of the temple. Such compositional priorities are also found throughout Cardillac op.39 (1925–6), Hindemith’s first full-length opera, a work composed in discrete numbers that exhibit traditional variation, fugato, ostinato, passacaglia and aria forms (fig.3). As these structures were understood to express the meaning of the text, Hindemith was careful to ensure that they were plainly audible. The aural clarity of musical procedures also stressed the fabricated nature of the music, a characteristic that defined it as modern by distinguishing it from the perceived organicism of its models. The shrill sonorities and lurid contours of the music for Cardillac, composed for a large chamber orchestra, provide a counterpoint to the stage action rather than support or interpretation. For all its vividness, the effect is relatively sober and unemotional. With this differentiation between the sober, objective, apparently autonomous musical processes and the obsessed, driven actions of the goldsmith Cardillac, the epitome of a kind of Romantic artist, who regains possession of his works by murdering those who buy them (the plot comes from E.T.A. Hoffman’s novella Das Fräulein von Scuderi), the opera is a major work of Neue Sachlichkeit.

Contemporary aesthetic views also influenced the performance style of the Amar Quartet. Judging by surviving recordings of the ensemble, motifs, themes and thematic development took second place in their interpretations to larger structural concerns. While not adhering to any particular formula, their recital programming mixed lesser-known works of the past with contemporary quartets and they frequently reduced or enlarged the ensemble to perform rarely heard works for unusual combinations of instruments. Their repertory centred on contemporary material, including music by Bartók, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern; they also gave the first performances of quartets by Kurt Weill, Philipp Jarnach, Ernst Krenek, Ernst Toch, Alois Hába and Hans Pfitzner, as well as Hindemith. Both his growing prestige as a viola player and the quartet’s growing number of engagements helped Hindemith to secure additional performances for his music.

As a member of the programme committee of the Donaueschingen Festival (the event moved to Baden-Baden in 1927 and to Berlin for the final pre-war festival in 1930) Hindemith highlighted certain genres in each year’s programmes and invited composers to write works along specified guidelines for performance at the festival. In 1925 a cappella music and the chamber concerto were featured; in 1926 music for mechanical instruments and music for wind received special attention; in 1927 the featured genres were film music and one-act opera; in 1928 they were organ music and the chamber cantata; in 1929 music for radio and teaching pieces were highlighted; and finally, in 1930, music composed specifically for gramophone recordings took centre stage. In this way, Hindemith focussed attention on the practical role of music, encouraging composers to return to composing for a given purpose and according to prescribed premises. He formulated this principle in 1927 as follows: ‘The composer today should write only if he knows for what purpose he is writing. The days of composing only for the sake of composing are perhaps gone for ever.’ (Paul Hindemith: Aufsätze-Vorträge-Reden, p.27)

In order to divert attention away from aspects of style and towards suitability of purpose, Hindemith composed a work in collaboration with his pupils Harald Genzmer and Oskar Sala and had it performed anonymously in Berlin in 1930. He also took advantage of festivals, especially in Baden-Baden, to improve general knowledge of contemporary music by inviting people involved in the amateur music movement to attend concerts. At the same time, he tried to interest composers in amateur music-making. These undertakings were allied to fundamental convictions expressed in his lectures, articles and the prefaces of his scores. Increasingly he felt a duty to the public, however anonymous or amorphous. As early as 1925 he acknowledged:

I am firmly convinced that a big battle over new music will start in the next few years – the signs are already there. The need will be to prove whether or not the music of our day, including my own, is capable of survival. I of course believe firmly in it, but I also believe that the reproaches made against most modern music are only too well deserved. (Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith, p.38)

Changes in Hindemith’s personal life also reflected his growing sense of responsibility. In 1924 he married Gertrud Rottenberg, who was descended on her mother’s side from one of Frankfurt’s most respected families. Her grandfather Franz Adickes had been a distinguished mayor of the city, and her uncle Alfred Hugenberg was one of the most influential newspaper publishers of the Weimar Republic. Gertrud had trained as an actress and singer and was an enthusiastic amateur cellist, but extreme stage-fright had ended her plans for a career on the stage. After their marriage, she took a close interest in her husband’s work, usually accompanying him on his journeys and writing letters on his behalf, particularly in later years. Hindemith dedicated many of his works to her and also wrote a number of songs and small pieces suited to her musical capabilities.

Hindemith, Paul