Paul Hindemith Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

An Artist Against the State: The 'Degenerate' Master

In 1934, the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler published a passionate defense of the composer Paul Hindemith, whose career was under attack by the ascendant Nazi party. The controversy centered on Hindemith's new opera, Mathis der Maler, about a 16th-century artist struggling with his role in a time of social upheaval. The Nazi authorities saw a clear and unwelcome parallel to their own time. Despite Furtwängler's support, the regime's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, publicly denounced Hindemith as an "atonal noisemaker" and a purveyor of "degenerate art." This condemnation effectively ended the career of Germany's most prominent living composer in his own homeland, forcing him into an exile that would eventually take him to America. The battle over Mathis der Maler was a defining moment, cementing Hindemith's image as a figure of immense artistic integrity in a world descending into darkness.

The Provocative Prodigy

Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau, Germany, in 1895. His talent was immense and versatile. He quickly mastered the violin and, most significantly, the viola, on which he became a world-class virtuoso. After studying at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, he embarked on a career as a performer and composer. His early works were a product of the turbulent, post-World War I era of German Expressionism. They were often deliberately provocative, dissonant, and shocking, earning him a reputation as an enfant terrible. He wrote one short opera about a murder that the soprano sings while nude, and another piece that famously included instructions for the performers to treat the work with a total lack of seriousness. This early wildness, however, was built on a foundation of incredible technical skill.

Gebrauchsmusik: Music for Use

As he matured, Hindemith reacted against the excesses of both late-Romanticism and his own early Expressionism. He developed a philosophy he called Gebrauchsmusik, which translates roughly as "utility music" or "music for use." Hindemith believed that composers had a social responsibility and should not simply compose "art for art's sake" in an ivory tower. He argued that a composer was a craftsman, like a carpenter or a tailor, who should be able to create well-made, practical music for specific needs and occasions. This led him to compose a vast amount of music for amateurs, students, and unusual instrumental combinations. Most famously, he embarked on a project to write a sonata for nearly every instrument of the orchestra, including the tuba, the double bass, and the heckelphone, creating a core repertoire that is still essential for instrumental students today.

Mathis der Maler and the Nazi Condemnation

Hindemith's central work of the 1930s was the opera Mathis der Maler ("Matthias the Painter"). The opera's plot is based on the life of the 16th-century painter Matthias Grünewald, the creator of the famous Isenheim Altarpiece. In the opera, the artist is caught up in the violent German Peasants' War and questions whether he should abandon his art to fight for social justice. He ultimately concludes that an artist's greatest contribution to society is to practice his art with the highest integrity, creating a spiritual refuge for humanity in troubled times. The parallels to an artist's role under the Nazi regime were unmistakable. The opera was banned, and Hindemith, whose music was already disliked by the regime for its modernism and his past association with Jewish musicians, became a cultural outcast. Before the opera was even staged, Hindemith extracted a three-movement symphony from its music, the Symphony: Mathis der Maler, which became his most famous orchestral work.

An American Professor

Forced out of Germany, Hindemith first emigrated to Switzerland and then, in 1940, to the United States. He accepted a position as a professor of music theory and composition at Yale University, where he remained until 1953. He became one of the most influential teachers in America, shaping a generation of young composers. During this time, he also wrote several important theoretical books, most notably The Craft of Musical Composition, in which he laid out his complex but logical system of harmony based on the acoustic principles of the overtone series. He became an American citizen in 1946 but returned to Europe in his later years, settling in Switzerland.

The Neoclassical Craftsman

Hindemith's mature musical style is often described as neoclassical. He had a deep and abiding reverence for the music of the Baroque era, particularly the intricate counterpoint and formal clarity of Johann Sebastian Bach. His music is characterized by its linear, polyphonic texture, its driving rhythms, and its "tonal" but not traditionally functional harmony. He rejected the twelve-tone system of Arnold Schoenberg, seeking instead to build a new harmonic language on what he believed were the immutable laws of acoustics. For Hindemith, music was not primarily about self-expression, but about superb craftsmanship and the logical ordering of sound.

Legacy

Paul Hindemith was one of the true giants of 20th-century music. He was a complete musician—a world-class performer, a prolific and masterly composer, a groundbreaking theorist, and a profoundly influential teacher. While some find his music more academic than emotional, its intelligence, integrity, and impeccable craftsmanship are undeniable. His philosophy of Gebrauchsmusik reasserted the composer's vital role in society, and his vast catalog of sonatas enriched the repertoire of countless instruments. As an artist who stood up to totalitarianism, he remains a powerful symbol of moral and creative courage.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Skelton, Geoffrey. Paul Hindemith: The Man Behind the Music. Victor Gollancz, 1975.

• Neumeyer, David. The Music of Paul Hindemith. Yale University Press, 1986.

• Hindemith, Paul. The Craft of Musical Composition. 2 vols. Associated Music Publishers, 1941–42.

• Schubert, Giselher. "Paul Hindemith." Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001.