Text в paul hindemith

(born Hanau, near Frankfurt, 16 November 1895; died Frankfurt, 28 December 1963).

Hе studied as a violinist and composer (with Mendelssohn and Sekles) at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt (1908 – 17) and made an early reputation through his chamber music and expressionist operas. But then he returned to neo-classicism in his “Kammermusik” no. 1, the first of seven such works imitating the Baroque concerto while using an expanded tonal harmony and distinctively modern elements, notably jazz. Each uses a different mixed chamber orchestra, suited to music of linear counterpoint and, in the fast movements, strongly pulsed rhythm.

During this early period Hindemith lived as a performer: he was leader of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra (1915 – 23, with a break for army service), and he played the viola in the Amar-Hindemith Quartet (1921 – 29) as well as in the first performance of Walton's Viola Concerto (1929). Much of his chamber music was written in 1917 – 24, including four of six quartets and numerous sonatas, and he was also involved in promoting chamber music through his administrative work for the Donaueschingen Festival (1923 – 30). However, he also found time to compose abundantly in other genres; including Lieder (“Das Marienleben”, to Rilke’s poems), music for newly invented mechanical instruments, music for schoolchildren and amateurs, and opera (“Cardillac”, a fantasy melodrama in neo-classical forms). In addition, from 1927 he taught at the Berlin Musikschule.

His concern with many branches of music stemmed from a sense of ethical responsibility that inevitably became more acute with the rise of the Nazis. With the beginning of the 1930s he moved from chamber ensembles to the more public sphere of the symphony orchestra, and at the same time his music became harmonically smoother and less intensively contrapuntal. Then in the opera “Mathis der Maler” he dramatized the dilemma of the artist in society, eventually opposing Brechtian engagement and, insisting on a greater responsibility to art. Nevertheless, his music fell under official disappruval, and in 1938 he left for Switzerland, where “Mathis” had its first performance. He moved on to the USA and taught at Yale (1940 – 53), but spent his last decade in Switzerland.

His later music is in the style that he had established in the early 1930s and that he had theoretically expounded in his “Сraft of Musical Composition” (1937 – 39), where he ranks scale degrees and haramonic intervals in order from most consonant (tonic, octave) to most dissonant (augmented 4th, tritone), providing a justification for the primacy of the triad. His large output of the later 1930s and 1940s includes concertos (for violin, cello, piano, clarinet and horn) and other orchestral works, as well as sonatas for most of the standard instruments. His search for an all-explaining harmony also found expression in his opera “Die Harmonie der Welt”.

Proper Names

Paul Hindemith [‘pQul ‘hindqmit]

Hanau [hRnQu]

Frankfurt [‘frxNkfqt]

Arnold Mendelssohn [‘Rnld ‘mendlsn]

Bernhard Sekles [‘bWnhRd ‘seklqs]

Hoch Conservatory [hOh ...]

“Kammermusik” [‘kAmqrmu‘zik]

Amar – Hindemith Quartet [‘Rmqr ‘hindqmit ...]

Walton [‘wLltqn]

Donaueschingen [dL‘nQu,eSiNqn]

“Das Marienleben” [dQs mA‘riqn,lebqn] – «Житие Марии»

Rainer Maria Rilke [‘rQinqr mA‘riq ‘rilkq]

“Cardillac” [‘kRdiljqk]

“Mathis der Maler” [‘mRtis der ‘mRlqr] – «Художник Матис»

Brechtian [‘brehtiqn]

“Die Harmonie der Welt” [di hArmO‘nJ der velt] – «Гармония мира»