Symphonic metamorphosis of themes from Carl Maria von Weber

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Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber (AKA English Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber ) is the title of an orchestral work by Paul Hindemith from 1943, which he in American exile wrote. The piece, originally conceived as a ballet , has four movements and is one of Hindemith's best-known works. It is based on musical themes from Carl Maria von Weber . It is included in the repertoire of most international symphony orchestras and is performed in various arrangements and arrangements - the fourth movement, a march, often also for wind orchestra .

Background and story

From 1934 works by Hindemith were no longer played on German radio , in 1936 the National Socialists forbade his music to be performed publicly in Germany, and in 1937 he resigned from his position as professor at the Berlin University of Music and when the Degenerate Music exhibition took place in 1938 and explicitly was made aware of the Jewish descent of his wife Gertrud Rottenberg, the Hindemiths decided to emigrate - first to Switzerland and from 1940 (initially Paul Hindemith alone) to the USA. In the same year the Russian dancer and choreographer Léonide Massine suggested that he, who had just come into exile in America, compose a ballet based on pieces of music by Carl Maria von Weber. Massine and Hindemith had already realized a project together at the end of the 1930s, it was the ballet Nobilissima Visione , which was premiered on July 21, 1938 by the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in London. Another ballet project from that time was supposed to deal with the Dutch proverbs and pictures of Pieter Brueghel the Elder , but that failed. The Weber Ballet soon took shape, however, because in the same year Hindemith arranged two themes, Allegro and Andantino , which would later become the first and third movements of the Symphonic Metamorphosis , for piano. But the collaboration was not satisfactory afterwards. Massine actually only wanted some pieces of music by Weber to be instrumented, but Hindemith was not enough, he wanted to paraphrase Weber's music freely . The collaboration with Massine then ended due to artistic differences (from the letter to Gertrud of March 21, 1940). On April 12, 1940, Hindemith wrote to his wife Gertrud, who as a Jew had to stay in exile in Switzerland because she could not initially get a ticket for a boat trip to the USA, that he had only "slightly colored Weber's music and made it a little sharper" . The completion of the instrumentation took until August 1943. Only when Artur Rodziński , an admirer of Hindemith's music, offered him the prospect of a composition commission on March 13, 1943, did he continue work and the score was initially ready for printing on August 29, 1943, but Hindemith continued to make corrections and Improvements. He still couldn't think of a title for the work, and the publisher didn't like the working title Weber Suite . Everything was ready by the end of 1943, and the premiere took place on January 20, 1944 in New York with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Artur Rodziński.

Performance history and reception

The piece was a great success for Hindemith, and he himself thought it was a success. The premiere concert consisted of Georg Friedrich Handel's Concertino in D major, arranged for orchestra and organ, followed by Johannes Brahms ' Violin Concerto . Then Hindemith's Metamorphosis was on the program, which ended with excerpts from Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . The reactions of the press after the New York premiere were mostly positive. Olin Downes wrote in the New York Times on January 21, 1944:

“… It was one of the most entertaining scores […] a real jeu d'esprit by a great master of his medium in a singularly happy mood […]. But we must also confess to finding the music diverting and delightful. " The composer Virgil Thomson wrote as a music critic for the New York Herald Tribune: "The novelty was a piece by Hindemith […]. This turned out to be a jolly and roistering number, except for its scherzo in chinese vein, which included, of all things, a fugato and was a pretty laborious joke. […] The audience applauded boisteriously […]. ”

After the successful premiere, other American orchestras also expressed interest in the metamorphosis and on November 15, 1944, inquiries from six well-known orchestras had already been received. The Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber came to Germany in 1947. On May 28, 1947, the first performance took place as part of the 102nd  Niederrheinischer Musikfest under the direction of Heinrich Hollreiser in Düsseldorf. In the same year there were almost 30 performances not only in the western but also in the Soviet zone of occupation ; The score was also sent to orchestras in Dresden and Leipzig by Schott-Verlag in Mainz. Several broadcasters, including RIAS Berlin, recorded the work. An author with the abbreviation GC wrote in the Sächsisches Tageblatt about the performance on August 30th in Dresden with the Sächsische Staatskapelle under the direction of Joseph Keilberth :

“The latest Hindemith [...] suggests an inner relationship to the world of German Romanticism [...]. Admittedly, we know it: Hindemith is no longer the hated bourgeoisie, the wild extremist of yore. [...] So for the impartial listener these metamorphoses are real, unadulterated Hindemith [...]. A music of strange piercing intensity [...]. "

Hindemith conducted his work 27 times himself up to 1958. Some concerts were recorded on the radio, but Deutsche Grammophon records were also made with the Berlin Philharmonic in the mid-1950s. But there was at least one critical voice from Germany who criticized the work as not very important. In 1970, for example, the musicologist Helmut Rösner wrote in a paper for the Frankfurt am Main music library that “American influences” were present and that “craftsmanship was undoubtedly expressed”, but it was a “noisy piece, an effective orchestral excitement, not much more, Talmi glitter instead of real luminosity ”. As early as 1934, the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels referred to Hindemith publicly as an “atonal noise maker”. The Soviet musicologist Vitalij Sergeevič Fomin writes about the work: “... is probably Hindemith's most popular composition. [...] Metamorphosis is not just a witty transformation of Weber's [unknown] themes. Originated [...] at the height of the Second World War, the work, in the opinion of many critics, celebrates the past Germany and expresses a bright hope for its future. "

Musical templates

Hindemith himself gave no information on the templates used , except for the second movement Turandot , and the introduction to the work that he had announced did not appear. Only after the performance of the play were Weber's themes, previously forgotten, identified after a radio broadcast and thus made known.

The Allegro , topic for the first set of metamorphosis, took Hindemith from Weber's eight little-known piano pieces for four hands, Op. 60, here are the no. 4, from the year 1819. The second set of metamorphosis comes in a slightly different melody from the Overture of the incidental music op.37 to the play Turandot, Princess of China based on a play by Friedrich Schiller from 1811, which in turn refers to the fairy tale Turandot by Carlo Gozzi and has been repeatedly reworked as a theme in classical music and literature . In the third movement of the Metamorphosis, the Andantino , Hindemith used a theme from Weber's 6 Pièces faciles, op. 10 , here No. 2, from 1809 (originally referred to as op. 3). Weber's March from Huit Pièces Op. Served for the fourth and last movement . 60 (around 1802-03), there the number seven, a march (with Weber Marcia. Maestoso ), as a template. Hindemith made little changes to Weber's themes, but he provided a virtuoso instrumentation for large American orchestras with a pronounced consideration of wind and percussion instruments, as well as rhythmic shifts that give the themes a modern, almost American character with unusual timbres with almost jazz-like elements. This gave the pieces a completely different character than the originals. Carl Maria von Weber wrote them as small, not too difficult performance pieces for the four-hand house music of his time; they were forgotten, but Hindemith thought further and created a work with a completely different modern expression. In the study score from Edition Eulenburg for the piece, Ian Kemp writes in his foreword that Hindemith, while still in exile in Switzerland, "played through Weber's pieces with his wife Gertrud, a good pianist, in the music-making lessons at home."

Musical structure

Although the subject matter of the work belongs to the European romantic music tradition, it was composed in the virtuoso spirit of modern American symphony orchestras and the original title is in English. Later it was also given different titles, for example as Symphonic Metamorphosis from [over / to / to] themes of Carl Maria von Weber or in two versions with an incorrect plural as Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes by Carl Maria von Weber and Symphonic Metamorphoses Carl Maria von Weber ' serious issues . Hindemith did not object to these designations, however. Some of these titles were even translated back into English, for example as Metamorphoses on Themes by… . In English the work has also been titled Symphonic Variations on [or "of"] Themes by Carl Maria von Weber . Although these seem to relate to a selection of Weber's themes, the piece is rather a cross-section of all of Weber's works. Hindemith himself, contrary to his announcement, wrote nothing about his work. Arthur Mendel , who was responsible for Hindemith at the music publisher Associated Music Publishers at the time , drafted a foreword for the score, which he sent to the composer for correction. Hindemith made corrections, but the work appeared without any introductory words. Mendel then probably used the text for advertising purposes.

The Symphonic Metamorphosis consists of four movements , all of which are notated without a preceding sign (Hindemith's music does not have a continuous key ):

  1. Allegro : This sentence has the metronome indication Quarter note with upwards stem.svg = 108, so the quarter note should be struck 108 times per minute. As clock Hindemith uses the ² / ₄ cycle. The emphasis is always on the first beat. The movement extends over 165 bars and thus less than four minutes. Carl Maria von Weber describes his piano piece as Alla Zingara (to be played in the gypsy style), so it should be played with spirits, which Hindemith enhances with his arrangement, whereby he parodies the metrical steadiness in Weber's original with asymmetrical shifts.
  2. Scherzo (Turandot): Moderato - Lively : Here the informationHalf note with upwards stem.svg= 132 and from the tempo designation Lively (bar 28 ff.) The metronome valueHalf note with upwards stem.svg= 96 for the half note. First the Turandot Scherzo begins in ⁴ / ₄ and then changes to ² / ₂ time. This movement is the longest of the Metamorphosis and lasts with 304 bars, depending on the interpretation, around nine minutes. The simple theme with a limited melodic structure (VS Fomin) is played over and over again in different variations. In the middle section, a fugato , a syncopated rhythmic shift appears that is almost reminiscent of a jazz sequence. Hindemith regroups musical motifs , bars and also individual tones in such a way that the melody is always recognizable, but the actually pseudo-Chinese ambience takes on a completely new, surprising character.
  3. Andantino : The Andantino is a slow movement. The value for the eighth note is1-8 note quaver (music) .svg126 to 132; the composer chose a slightly dance-like ⁶ / ₈ time. This movement is the shortest of the work, it comprises only 28 bars and thus takes less than four minutes. This movement is one of the few examples in Hindemith's music in which a lyrical character (in the romantic folk tone) appears.
  4. March : The well-known march, which Carl Maria von Weber can still perceive as a romantic funeral march , is playedfaster, livelier, more ironic and sharper (Hindemith)in Hindemith's Metamorphosis , andno longer has the dark character of a funeral procession . The value for the half note is therefore= 80 with the typical ² / ₂-time (in military jargon: left, two - left, two! ). It has 139 bars and ends after just under five minutes. This partly pompous march, which at the same time has boisterous and scherzo-like elements, forms the climax of the Metamorphosis with a brilliant finale(after Fomin, foreword to the Symphonic Metamorphosis ).Half note with upwards stem.svg

Instrumentation

The instrumentation of the metamorphosis designed Hindemith for a large symphony orchestra with romantic orientation . It includes

Comparative audio samples

Later adaptations for ballet

George Balanchine , the then adversary of Léonide Massine, later choreographed the work under the title Metamorphoses for the New York City Ballet , which was performed on November 25, 1952. The main actors were Tanaquil LeClercq , Todd Bolender and Nicholas Magallanes , the musical direction was Léon Barzin . The piece was brought out again in 1954. A new version of ballet called Movilissimanoble was created in 1990. It was developed by Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros for a production by Wolf Trap in Washington, DC , but was unsuccessful. In 1991 the Tokyo Festival Ballet in New York brought Minoru Suzuki's Henyo: Unknown Symphony , a ballet danced to recordings of Hindemith music. But this project was also not well received by the audience: "The choreography kept 16 dancers busy. Yet the work was more notable for its abundance of steps than for its clarity of structure", wrote the dance critic Jack Anderson in the Review / Dance .

literature

  • Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses: on themes by Carl Maria von Weber for large orchestra [1943]. (=  Schott music of our time ). Schott, Mainz [a. a.] 1973, OCLC 256715023 .
  • Gene Anderson: Analysis: Musical Metamorphoses in Hindemith's March from “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber”. In: Journal of Band Research 30, No. 1, 1994, pp. 1-10. scholarship.richmond.edu
  • Norbert Bolín: Paul Hindemith. Composer between tradition and avant-garde. 10 studies . Report on the Paul Hindemith Symposium, 14. – 17. November 1996 at the Cologne University of Music. Ed .: Norbert Bolín, University of Music (=  Cologne writings on new music . Volume 7 ). Schott, Mainz [among others] 1999, ISBN 3-7957-1896-1 .
  • Wilfried Brennecke: The Metamorphoses Works by Richard Strauss and Paul Hindemith . In: Swiss music newspaper . tape 103 , no. 4 , 1963, pp. 199-208 .
  • Michael Charry: The Metamorphosis of a Title . In: Journal of the Conductors' Guild . tape 12 , 1–2 (Winter – Spring), 1991, pp. 71-73 (English).
  • John Fenton: Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses . In: Music Teacher . February 1978, p. 19-21 (English).
  • Corey Field: “A Rose by Any Other Name…” or The True and Correct Title of Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber . In: Journal of the Conductors' Guild . tape 11 , 3–4 (Summer – Fall), 1990, pp. 109-113 (English).
  • David Neumeyer: The Music of Paul Hindemith . In: Composers of the Twentieth Century . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 1986, ISBN 0-300-03287-0 (English).
  • Luther Noss: Paul Hindemith in the United States . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1989, ISBN 0-252-01563-0 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friederike Becker (ed.): Paul Hindemith. The private logbook - letters to his wife Gertrud. Piper, Munich 1995, p. 426 f.
  2. ↑ Friederike Becker (ed.): Paul Hindemith. The private logbook - letters to his wife Gertrud. Piper, Munich 1995, p. 448.
  3. ↑ Christian Kosfeld: “Sinfonische Metamorphosen” by Paul Hindemith. Description of the work on the WDR website .
  4. ↑ a b Stephen Luttmann: Paul Hindemith: a research and information guide (=  Routledge music bibliographies ). 2nd Edition. Routledge, New York / London 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-99416-3 , pp. 335 .
  5. ↑ Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert, Luitgard Schader (eds.): Paul Hindemith. Complete works (scores), orchestral works 1943–46. Schott Mainz, 2012, pp. XIV ff.
  6. ^ Municipal Music Library, Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): Paul Hindemith. In it Helmut Rösner with the essay orchestral works. Frankfurt am Main, 1970, p. 37.
  7. ↑ Manuel Brug: The gloomy Germans are coming! In: The world . November 18, 2010 ( welt.de [accessed September 8, 2016]).
  8. ^ Antonia Bruns: Hindemith, Paul: Sonata for piano No. 3 in B flat major. swr.de, August 4, 2010, accessed on September 8, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Hindemith Institute Frankfurt (ed.): Hindemith-Jahrbuch 2012, Volume XLI . In it Vitalij S. Fomin: Foreword to the Symphonic Metamorphosis , Schott Music, Mainz 2013, ISBN 978-3-7957-7052-5 , p. 65 f.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert, Luitgard Schader (eds.): Paul Hindemith. Complete works (scores), orchestral works 1943–46. Quoted from Hindemith's colleague Arthur Mendel 1976, Schott Mainz, 2012, p. XIII f.
  11. ↑ Louis Köhler, Collection Litolff (ed.): Compositions pour Piano à 4 mains de Weber. Volume I: Huit Pièces (= Collection Litolff 184). Henry Litolff, Braunschweig, mid-19th century, p. 14 ff.
  12. ^ Henri Lemoine (Ed.): 6 Pièces faciles pour Piano à quatre mains par Ch. M. de Weber. Paris 1869, p. 8 ff.
  13. ↑ Louis Köhler (Ed.): Compositions pour Piano à 4 mains de Weber. Volume I: Huit Pièces (= Collection Litolff 184). Henry Litolff, Braunschweig, mid-19th century, p. 26 ff.
  14. ↑ Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert, Luitgard Schader (eds.): Paul Hindemith. Complete works (scores), orchestral works 1943–46. Quoted from Hindemith's colleague Arthur Mendel 1976, Schott Mainz, 2012, p. XII f.
  15. ^ Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Edition Eulenburg, No. 1394 (study score), ISBN 978-3-7957-7263-5 .
  16. ^ Giselher Schubert: Hindemith, Paul . In: Stanley Sadie, John Tyrrell (Eds.): The new Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . 2nd Edition. tape 11 : Harpégé to Hutton . Grove an imprint of Oxford University Press / Macmillan Publishers, New York / London 2001, ISBN 0-19-517067-9 , pp. 523-538 .
  17. ^ Gene Anderson: The Triumph of Timelessness over Time in Hindemith's "Turandot Scherzo" from "Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber" . In: College Music Symposium . tape 36 , 1996, pp. 1–15 , here p. 1 , JSTOR : 40374281 (English).
  18. ↑ Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert, Luitgard Schader (eds.): Paul Hindemith. Complete works (scores), orchestral works 1943–46. Quoted from Hindemith's colleague Arthur Mendel 1976, Schott Mainz, 2012, p. XII f.
  19. ^ Andres Briner : Paul Hindemith . Atlantis / Schott, Mainz 1971, p. 159 f.
  20. ^ The Week's Programs: Ballet Artists Returning - Concerts and Recitals . In: The New York Times . November 16, 1952 (English).
  21. ↑ This Week's Events: Balanchine - Hindemith Ballet in Premiere . In: The New York Times . November 23, 1952 (English, nytimes.com ).
  22. ↑ Stephen Luttmann: Paul Hindemith: a research and information guide (=  Routledge music bibliographies ). 2nd Edition. Routledge, New York / London 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-99416-3 , pp. 336 .
  23. ^ John Martin: Ballet Presents Another Novelty: Metamorphoses Makes Use of Collaboration of Karinska, Balanchine and Hindemith . In: The New York Times . November 26, 1952, p. 20 (English, nytimes.com ).
  24. ^ Alan M. Kriegsman: Dance; Miami Spice; At Wolf Trap, a Dash of Balanchine . August 10, 1990 (English, highbeam.com ). highbeam.com ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  25. ↑ Jack Anderson: Review / Dance; Japanese Choreography In Contemporary Works . In: The New York Times . March 12, 1991 (English, nytimes.com ).