Paul Hindemith

The journey of Paul Hindemith (* November 16, 1895, Hanau; † December 28, 1963, Frankfurt/Main) into the top tier of 20th-century composers was a winding one, leaving numerous distinct traces in music history. He was among the initiators of the Donaueschingen Music Days as well as a revolutionary in the Berlin cultural scene of the Twenties. He played a significant role in organizing musical life in Turkey on behalf of the Turkish state and, as a professor at Yale, guided an entire generation of young colleagues. Hindemith himself studied composition with Arnold Mendelssohn and violin with Adolf Rebner in Frankfurt/Main. From 1915 to 1923, interrupted by military service, he was concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera House. From 1922 onwards, he was also the violist of the Amar Quartet, and from 1927, a composition teacher at the Berlin University of Music. Denounced by the National Socialists, he moved to Switzerland in 1938, and two years later to the USA, teaching at Yale University from 1940 to 1953. From 1951, he sporadically returned to Zurich and settled in Blonay in the Canton of Vaud in 1953. He remained active as a composer and conductor until his death. Paul Hindemith had an aversion to conventions. Anything that seemed too predictable was suspect to him, making it difficult for his contemporaries to assign him a place in the succession of musical events. While the development from Classicism and Romanticism through Expressionism to Serialism could otherwise be traced, specialists found Hindemith to be a brilliant maverick. Through his creative competence, he rejected both atonality and serial composition, yet he was equally disinclined towards the tradition of Wagnerian, French, or Russian influences. Despite his detachment from conventional norms, he clearly maintained the impetus of musicality in his art, which in his later years also sought an anchoring in the transcendent. Denounced by the Nazis, revered by the rest of the world, he is now considered one of the forefathers of modernism, whose artistic vision continues to inspire the avant-garde to this day. His central works include an extensive oeuvre of orchestral, piano, and chamber music, numerous choral works, and songs. His operas "Cardillac" (1926), "Mathis der Maler" (1938), and "Die Harmonie der Welt" (1957), which was preceded by a symphony of the same title in 1951, became pioneering for modern stage practice. Among Paul Hindemith's most frequently performed works are also his string quartets, string trios, the "Octet" (1958), and the sonatas for violin, viola, cello, flute, and oboe.