36 Facts About Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe.

Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, the eldest child of the painter and decorator Robert Hindemith from Lower Silesia and his wife Marie Hindemith, nee Warnecke.

Paul Hindemith entered Frankfurt's Dr Hoch's Konservatorium, where he studied violin with Adolf Rebner, as well as conducting and composition with Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles.

Paul Hindemith became deputy leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra in 1914 and was promoted to concertmaster in 1916.

Paul Hindemith played second violin in the Rebner String Quartet from 1914.

In 1921, Paul Hindemith founded the Amar Quartet, playing viola, and extensively toured Europe with an emphasis on contemporary music.

Paul Hindemith wrote the music for Hans Richter's 1928 avant-garde film Ghosts Before Breakfast and acted in the film; the score and original film were later burned by the Nazis.

In 1929, Paul Hindemith played the solo part in the premiere of William Walton's viola concerto, after Lionel Tertis, for whom it was written, turned it down.

On 15 May 1924, Paul Hindemith married the actress and singer Gertrud Rottenberg.

The conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler's defence of Paul Hindemith, published in 1934, takes this line.

The controversy around his work continued throughout the thirties, with Paul Hindemith falling in and out of favour with the Nazis.

Paul Hindemith accepted an invitation from the Turkish government to oversee the creation of a music school in Ankara in 1935, after Goebbels had pressured him to request an indefinite leave of absence from the Berlin Academy.

Paul Hindemith led the reorganization of Turkish music education and the early efforts to establish the Turkish State Opera and Ballet.

Paul Hindemith did not stay in Turkey as long as many other emigres, but he greatly influenced Turkish musical life; the Ankara State Conservatory owes much to his efforts.

Toward the end of the 1930s, Paul Hindemith made several tours of America as a viola and viola d'amore soloist.

Paul Hindemith emigrated to Switzerland in 1938, partly because his wife was of part-Jewish ancestry.

Paul Hindemith had such notable students as Lukas Foss, Graham George, Andrew Hill, Norman Dello Joio, Mel Powell, Yehudi Wyner, Harold Shapero, Hans Otte, Ruth Schonthal, Samuel Adler, Leonard Sarason, Fenno Heath, Mitch Leigh, and George Roy Hill.

Paul Hindemith taught at the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, and Wells College.

Paul Hindemith had a long friendship with Erich Katz, whose compositions were influenced by him.

Also among Paul Hindemith's students were the future rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and the composers Franz Reizenstein, Harald Genzmer, Oskar Sala, Arnold Cooke, Robert Strassburg, and dozens of other notables.

Paul Hindemith became a US citizen in 1946, but returned to Europe in 1953, living in Zurich and teaching at the university there until he retired from teaching in 1957.

Paul Hindemith is among the most significant German composers of his time.

Paul Hindemith continued to write for unusual groups of instruments throughout his life, producing a trio for viola, heckelphone and piano, seven trios for three trautoniums, a sonata for double bass, and a concerto for trumpet, bassoon, and strings.

An example of this is Paul Hindemith's Trauermusik, written in January 1936.

Paul Hindemith was preparing the London premiere of his viola concerto Der Schwanendreher when he heard news of the death of George V Paul Hindemith quickly wrote Trauermusik for solo viola and string orchestra in tribute to the late king, and the premiere was given that same evening, the day after the king's death.

The piece is representative of Paul Hindemith's late works, exhibiting strong contrapuntal lines throughout, and is a cornerstone of the band repertoire.

Paul Hindemith recorded it in stereo with members of the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI in 1956.

Paul Hindemith even rewrote some of his music after developing this system.

One of the core features of Paul Hindemith's system is a ranking of all musical intervals of the 12-tone equally tempered scale, from the most consonant to the most dissonant.

Paul Hindemith classifies chords in six categories, on the basis of dissonance, whether they contain a tritone, and whether they clearly suggest a root or tonal centre.

Paul Hindemith advocated this system as a means of understanding and analyzing the harmonic structure of other music, claiming that it has a broader reach than the traditional Roman numeral approach to chords.

Much of Paul Hindemith's music begins in consonant territory, progresses into dissonant tension, and resolves in full, consonant chords and cadences.

Paul Hindemith's complete set of instructional books, in possible educational order:.

Paul Hindemith conducted some of his own music in a series of recordings for EMI with the Philharmonia Orchestra and for Deutsche Grammophon with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which have been digitally remastered and released on CD.

Paul Hindemith appeared on television as a guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's nationally syndicated "Music from Chicago" series; the performances have been released by VAI on home video.

An annual festival of Paul Hindemith's music has been held at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, from 2003 through at least 2017.