Mathis the painter's symphony
The Mathis der Maler Symphony is a symphony by Paul Hindemith that premiered in 1934 and is one of his most frequently performed works. It was created in connection with the work on the opera Mathis der Maler , which deals with the life of Matthias Grünewald . Hindemith wrote the three movements of the symphony before the textbook he had written himself was completed and later incorporated them into the opera. The symphony is like a "sounding triptych ", which musically implements various motifs from the Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald in the individual movements .
Orchestra line-up and duration of performance
2 large flutes (2nd also small flute ), 2 oboes , 2 clarinets in Bb, 2 bassoons , 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 3 trombones , bass tuba , timpani , percussion ( glockenspiel , triangle , cymbals , snare drum , Bass drum ), strings
The duration of the performance is given in the score as 26 minutes. A performance conducted by Hindemith himself lasted slightly longer at around 27½ minutes.
General information about music
The score (like Hindemith's music in general) has no accidentals . The composer thus makes it clear that he is no longer moving within the framework of the conventional major-minor tonality , but is practicing a free tonality on the basis of the chromatic scale as a practical scale . Accordingly, he no longer knows the key signatures in C major or C minor, but only C, which includes both as a special case. Hindemith explains the theoretical foundations of his music in his instruction in composition and demonstrates its practical implementation in his Ludus tonalis .
On Hindemith's path from his early “Sturm und Drang period” to neoclassicism , the Mathis der Maler symphony marked “on the one hand an unmistakable departure from the experimental and provocative ventures of the twenties and, on the other hand, the clear tendency towards a“ great ”and meaningful art music . "
The sentences
Angel concert
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This movement, which functions as an overture in the opera , consists of a slow introduction and a subsequent faster section, which despite certain deviations can be viewed as an individual expression of a classical symphony main movement .
The first eight bars of the introduction ( calmly moved , 9/4 time, MM . Approx . 66) ( beginning in pianissimo ) are determined by “ethereal” G major - triads of the strings (divided several times) and a calm motif that follows one another ascends in the clarinets, oboes and flutes. Then heard from the accompanying pianissimo movement of the strings "gently protruding" in the trumpets that the Phrygian tone standing medieval song "Three angels sang." The melody is picked up by the horns with a slight dynamic increase ( mezzopiano ) and, after a clear crescendo, is repeated brilliantly in the full orchestral sound with the help of a glockenspiel by the trumpets and high woodwinds . The respective basic or final tones for this three- fold sound are F, A and C sharp (D flat ), so that an increase in pitch is added to the dynamic. After a decrescendo up to the pianissimo, the opening passage is repeated in a modified form: the roles of woodwinds and strings are reversed and instead of the G major chords now sound in D flat major.
The following main movement ( Quite lively halves , 2/2 time, MM 108–112) introduces three themes in the exposition (alluding to the three angels of the song). The already rich thematic motifs work prevailed exposure fades with three gentle B major chords before (dropped significantly in the score by a double dash), the implementation begins with a hard-hitting quote from the head motif of the first theme. This is then processed together with the second theme in a variety of imitation and contrapuntal ways, although the third theme is left out. Approximately in the middle of the development, after a short general pause, the trumpets begin with the melody of the angel song, which is repeated by the horns and trumpets, similar to the introduction. In the meantime, parts of the first and second themes can be heard in the woodwinds, while the higher strings play around with lively eighth notes. This time the dynamic increase goes from mezzoforte to fortissimo. This climax is followed by a calming process that extends over 23 bars, which is contested by the first theme, so that one could believe that one is already in the recapitulation . This impression is corrected, however, if after the end of this passage, clearly separated ( in the main time measure ), the actual recapitulation begins with the third theme (left out in the development), while the other two themes appear later. The movement ends fortissimo with weighty cadencing chords that lead to a sustained G major triad.
Entombment
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Hindemith inserted this movement (very slow, 4/4 time, MM about 54) as an interlude in the last picture of the opera. It is "a funeral music made up of declamations from strings and brass cantilenas". Heinrich Strobel writes about this: "All the forces of simplification appear concentrated in the construction of a powerful melodic line from a single motif and that dotted rhythm that finally relaxes." This final relaxation takes place in a double, quiet C sharp major chord (bars 41–42 of the total of 45 bars) is preceded by a motif of sighs that resounds three times (mf, p, pp, each with decrescendo) , and its extremely dissonant harmonization (with six to seven-note chords) has a very intense, painful-mystical effect. Another very noticeable event towards the end of the second third of a sentence is worth mentioning. After a ten-bar increase passage up to fortissimo, the empty fifth F sharp C sharp sounds on the first quarter of bar 33 (played by about half the orchestra), which on the second quarter (underlined by a cymbal beat) becomes a "radiant" F sharp major triad is completed. Obviously, the composer wanted to open up a glimpse of heavenly splendor beyond the mourning.
Temptation of Saint Anthony
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Hindemith prefixes this sentence, which is the longest of the symphony and is used in the opera in the sixth picture, with the motto: “Ubi eras, bone Jhesu ubi eras, quare non affuisti ut sanares vulnera mea?” (“Wo warst you, good Jesus, where have you been? Why didn't you come here to heal my wounds? ") According to the subject matter, this sentence is more inhomogeneous and bizarre than the others. It begins in a brooding and rhapsodic way ( very slowly, free in time , 4/4 time, no metronome indication ) with a unison recitation of the strings, which accelerates urgently and rhythmically and leads to a scandal via chains of trills and colons: a sharp dissonance chord in fortissimo which reverberates in a vortex of kettledrums, snare drum and cymbals. After a modified repetition of this process ( very lively , 9/8 time, about 176) follows a section that is characterized by rushed galloping rhythms and a strongly chromatic melody. This section culminates in a motif repeated several times, to which the words "We plague you" are underlaid in the opera. A new part begins with a trill on the first violins in the highest register ( Slow , about 60). Quiet and melodious "beguiling" melodies apparently indicate that the demons here take the form of female seduction. After this episode ( Lively , 2/4 time, around 144) the “plague motif” starts again, distorted syncopated and initially piano. In the further course there will be several increases, each new beginning. Towards the end, the diatonic melody of the sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem braces itself against the “infernal” chromatics of the demons , before the movement ends with the Alleluia chorale voiced by the brass (according to the score with all their might ) .
reception
The symphony was premiered on March 12, 1934 in the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwängler . "The success with the audience was overwhelming". Further performances in Duisburg, Sao Paulo and Scheveningen followed. On the radio she could be heard on the Reich broadcasters Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Leipzig as well as on the German broadcaster and Radio London. The success of the symphony and its musical style would actually have been instrumental in freeing Hindemith from the odium of the " cultural Bolshevik " that was attached to him and predestined him to be the "coming imperial musical genius". Fred K. Prieberg writes: “At this point, in the summer and autumn of 1934, Hindemith - sins of youth forgotten and forgiven - would have almost become the official, pampered, music-political functions, honored house composer of the Hitler state, who was honored with high-value commissions. “Although Hindemith had advocates in the National Socialist camp (the Hitler Youth and, at first, Goebbels were for him), a sustained press campaign under the patronage of Alfred Rosenberg , who accused Hindemith of“ the meanest perversion of German music ”, led to one personally approved by Hitler Boycott of his works. Hartmut Lück comments on this: “The fact that Hindemith of all people should be excluded from“ German music ”is one of the most grotesque phenomena in the national socialist music policy, which is by no means poor. Because hardly anyone would have been more suitable to represent the modern music of Germany in a substantial and representative way. "
literature
- Attila Csampai, Dietmar Holland: The concert guide . 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-8052-0450-7 , p. 1077 f .
- Heinrich Strobel: Paul Hindemith. B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1948.
- Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-26901-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Attila Csampai, Dietmar Holland: The concert guide . 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-8052-0450-7 , p. 1077 f .
- ↑ Hindemith conducts Hindemith , Deutsche Grammophon CD 427 407-2
- ^ Heinrich Strobel: Paul Hindemith. B. Schotts Sons, Mainz 1948, p. 86.
- ↑ a b c Hartmut Lück: Supplement to "Hindemith conducts Hindemith" . Deutsche Grammophon, CD 427 407-2
- ^ A b Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-26901-6 , p. 64.