Text 3 paul hindemith: his life and work (1895-1963)

Those writers who enjoy finding a spiritual kinship between one famous composer and another have described Hindemith (1895-1963) as "a twentieth-century Bach". The relationship between these two composers is not difficult to trace. Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis* has a strong similarity in purpose and method to the Well-Tempered Clavier; and the works grouped under the title of Kammermusik (Chamber Music), can be described as contemporary Brandenburg Concertos. The bond that ties Hindemith to Bach is counterpoint. With both composers, polyphony is the basis of their thinking; with both, polyphony serves as the material out of which mighty archi­tectural structures are built. Yet one might say of Hindemith what was once said so well of Bach: "The best way to listen to Bach's music is to forget the word counterpoint and to listen just for the music."

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With Hindemith, counterpoint is not the end, but the starting point. He is no neo-classicist living in the past, but a very modern composer belonging to our times. Though counterpoint is his method, there is independence in his thinking. His music is linear, by which we mean that the voices move with complete freedom of harmonic relationships. It has intensity, concentration, en­ergy - qualities that we associate with contemporary expression rather than with Bach. It is sometimes dissonant, sometimes atonal.

In his treatise, The Craft of Musical Composition - which some writers consider to be the most important theoretical work on music since Rameau's* - Hindemith has given us a clue to his technique by analyzing the techniques of contemporary composers. All tone combi­nations are possible as an altogether new conception of "key" is re­alised; melody is freed from its dependence of harmony.

Strange to say of a composer whose method is so complex and whose language is so remote, Hindemith did not keep himself alto­gether aloof from his public. As a matter of fact, he strongly felt the responsibility of the composer to society. Consequently, he produced a great number of works for mechanical organ, radio, pianola, the­ater, etc. This music has often been described as Gebrauchsmusik* - functional music - a term invented for Hindemith.

Hindemith was born in Hanau, Germany, on November 16, 1895, and studied at the Frankfurt Conservatory. In Frankfurt, Hindemith distinguished himself as a violinist (he was concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera House Orchestra), conductor, founder and violinist of the Amar String Quartet (which specialized in contemporary chamber music), and, finally, as a composer. His early works, intro­duced at the Donaueschingen Festivals of contemporary music in Baden-Baden between 1921 and 1923, attracted attention. In the half-dozen years that followed, Hindemith became one of the major cre­ative figures in Germany, particularly after the successful premieres of his operas Cardillac (1926) and Neues vom Tage* (1929).

In 1927, he was appointed professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule,* a post he held up to the time of Hitler. Soon after the Nazis took over Germany, Hindemith became the center of a cele­brated political and musical controversy. The Nazis did not look with favor on Hindemith, despite his international fame. His music was banned on all German concert programs.

In 1935 Hindemith left Germany, and went to Turkey, on the invitation of that government, to help reorganize its musical life. Af­ter that, Hindemith came to the United States and taught at Yale.*

When the war ended, Hindemith's music was again played in Germany. He returned to Europe in 1947, visiting Italy, England, Germany, and other countries. In 1953 he settled in Switzerland. In 1949-50 he spent a year at Harvard University, giving lectures, later published as A Composer's World.

In 1951 he accepted a teaching post at Zurich University, divid­ing his time with his duties at Yale, but in 1953 resigned from Yale

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and returned to Europe. In the last decade of his creative life Hindemith concentrated on introspective and spiritual compositions. He also devoted much time to conducting. In 1957 he completed the opera Die Harmonie der Welt (The Harmony of the World), which was staged in Munich in August of that year, with only moderate success.

The best of his music occupies an important place in the history of 20th century compositions.