Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) was a German composer, violist, conductor, and teacher whose music joined modernist harmony with clear forms and contrapuntal craft.

Mathis der Maler: Paul Hindemith’s opera and its related symphony, both inspired by the painter Matthias Grünewald. This opera and symphony exemplify his mature blend of historical subjects and modern musical language.
Craft of Musical Composition: Hindemith’s two-volume textbook on compositional technique and musical theory, published in the 1930s and 1940s. The books set out the principles behind his compositional practice.
Weimar Republic: The German republic established after World War I, lasting from 1919 until 1933. Hindemith’s early prominence and experimental work developed amid Weimar’s cultural life.
Ludwig Rottenberg: A German conductor who directed the Frankfurt Opera during Hindemith’s early career. Rottenberg supported Hindemith’s work at the Frankfurt Opera, where several early stage works premiered.
Yale University: A private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, where Hindemith taught from 1940 to 1953. His Yale years brought his compositional teaching to a broad American student community.
Ludus Tonalis: A 1942 piano cycle of preludes and fugues framed by an opening and closing postlude. Its contrapuntal design demonstrates Hindemith’s systematic approach to tonality.
Tonal hierarchy: An ordering of pitches by their perceived stability and relationship to a tonal center. Hindemith treated tonal relationships as perceptible even beyond conventional major-minor harmony.
Nazi Germany: The German dictatorship under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. The regime attacked Hindemith’s music and made his position in Germany increasingly untenable.
Amar Quartet: A string quartet founded by Hindemith in 1921, with Hindemith playing viola. The ensemble gave him a direct role in performing and developing his chamber music.
Interlochen Center for the Arts: An arts education institution in Michigan that hosted Hindemith as a guest composer in 1940. His work with students there extended his educational influence beyond Yale.

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