In music theory , counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour . The term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note". John Rahn describes counterpoint as follows:
71-663: Ludus Tonalis ("Play of Tones", "Tonal Game", or "Tonal Primary School" after the Latin Ludus Litterarius ), subtitled Kontrapunktische, tonale, und Klaviertechnische Übungen ( Counterpoint, tonal and technical studies for the piano ), is a piano work by Paul Hindemith that was composed in 1942 during his stay in the United States. It was first performed in 1943 in Chicago by Willard MacGregor . The piece explores "matters of technique, theory, inspiration, and communication. It
142-450: A U.S. citizen in 1946, but returned to Europe in 1953, living in Zürich and teaching at the university there until he retired from teaching in 1957. Toward the end of his life he began to conduct more and made numerous recordings, mostly of his own music. In 1954, an anonymous critic for Opera magazine, having attended a performance of Hindemith's Neues vom Tage , wrote: "Mr Hindemith
213-497: A foundational tone , and use musical forms and counterpoint and cadences typical of the Baroque and Classical traditions. His harmonic language is more modern, freely using all 12 notes of the chromatic scale within his tonal framework, as detailed in his three-volume treatise, The Craft of Musical Composition . Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau , near Frankfurt , the eldest child of
284-471: A sonata for double bass, and a concerto for trumpet, bassoon, and strings (both in 1949). In the 1930s Hindemith began to write less for chamber music groups, and more for large orchestral forces. He wrote his opera Mathis der Maler , based on the life of the painter Matthias Grünewald , in 1933–1935. This opera is rarely staged, though a well-known production by the New York City Opera in 1995
355-469: A "real master", and he was appreciated and greatly respected. Toward the end of the 1930s, Hindemith made several tours of America as a viola and viola d'amore soloist. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1938, partly because his wife was of part-Jewish ancestry. At the same time that he was codifying his musical language, Hindemith's teaching and compositions began to be affected by his theories, according to critics such as Ernest Ansermet . Arriving in
426-411: A mathematical foundation. In particular, Mazzola's model gives a structural (and not psychological) foundation of forbidden parallels of fifths and the dissonant fourth. Octavio Agustin has extended the model to microtonal contexts. Another theorist who has tried to incorporate mathematical principles in his study of counterpoint is Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915). Inspired by Spinoza , Taneyev developed
497-615: A new music pedagogy in the era of president Kemal Atatürk . His deputy was Eduard Zuckmayer . Hindemith led the reorganization of Turkish music education and the early efforts to establish the Turkish State Opera and Ballet . He did not stay in Turkey as long as many other émigrés, but he greatly influenced Turkish musical life; the Ankara State Conservatory owes much to his efforts. Young Turkish musicians regarded Hindemith as
568-515: A number of devices, including: Broadly speaking, due to the development of harmony, from the Baroque period on, most contrapuntal compositions were written in the style of free counterpoint. This means that the general focus of the composer had shifted away from how the intervals of added melodies related to a cantus firmus , and more toward how they related to each other. Nonetheless, according to Kent Kennan : "....actual teaching in that fashion (free counterpoint) did not become widespread until
639-523: A prolonged decline in his physical health, Hindemith composed almost until his death. He died in Frankfurt from pancreatitis , aged 68. He and his wife are buried in Cimetière La Chiésaz, La Chiésaz , Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Hindemith is among the most significant German composers of his time. His early works are in a late romantic idiom, and he later produced expressionist works, rather in
710-415: A range of Hindemith's works. Counterpoint It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The internal structures that create each of the voices separately must contribute to the emergent structure of the polyphony, which in turn must reinforce and comment on the structures of
781-434: A school-room discipline," consisting of species counterpoint but with all the traditional rules reversed. First species counterpoint must be all dissonances, establishing "dissonance, rather than consonance, as the rule," and consonances are "resolved" through a skip, not step. He wrote that "the effect of this discipline" was "one of purification". Other aspects of composition , such as rhythm, could be "dissonated" by applying
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#1732873707615852-544: A second voice is added. "The counterpoint in bars 5-8... sheds an unexpected light on the tonality of the Subject." : Bach 's 3-part Invention in F minor combines three independent melodies: According to pianist András Schiff , Bach's counterpoint influenced the composing of both Mozart and Beethoven . In the development section of the opening movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E minor , Beethoven demonstrates this influence by adding "a wonderful counterpoint" to one of
923-683: 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. The Violin Concerto was also recorded by Decca/London , with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and David Oistrakh as soloist. Everest Records issued a recording of Hindemith's postwar When Lilacs Last in
994-494: A single key so that playing a melody results in parallel voice leading. These voices, losing independence, are fused into one and the parallel chords are perceived as single tones with a new timbre. This effect is also used in orchestral arrangements; for instance, in Ravel 's Bolero #5 the parallel parts of flutes, horn and celesta resemble the sound of an electric organ. In counterpoint, parallel voices are prohibited because they violate
1065-524: A social or political purpose and sometimes written to be played by amateurs. The concept was inspired by Bertolt Brecht . An example of this is Hindemith's Trauermusik (Funeral Music), written in January 1936. He was preparing the London premiere of his viola concerto Der Schwanendreher when he heard news of the death of George V . He quickly wrote Trauermusik for solo viola and string orchestra in tribute to
1136-627: A solo bassoon adds a counterpoint that has a similarly impromptu quality." In the Prelude to Richard Wagner 's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , three themes from the opera are combined simultaneously. According to Gordon Jacob , "This is universally and justly acclaimed as an extraordinary feat of virtuosity." However, Donald Tovey points out that here "the combination of themes ... unlike classical counterpoint, really do not of themselves combine into complete or euphonious harmony." One spectacular example of 5-voice counterpoint can be found in
1207-600: A string quartet. In May 1918 he was deployed to the front in Flanders , where he served as a sentry; his diary has him "surviving grenade attacks only by good luck", according to New Grove Dictionary . After the armistice he returned to Frankfurt and the Rebner Quartet. In 1921, Hindemith founded the Amar Quartet , playing viola, and extensively toured Europe with an emphasis on contemporary music. His younger brother Rudolf
1278-560: A theory which covers and generalizes a wide range of advanced contrapuntal phenomena, including what is known to the english-speaking theorists as invertible counterpoint (although he describes them mainly using his own, custom-built terminology), by means of linking them to simple algebraic procedures. In counterpoint, the functional independence of voices is the prime concern. The violation of this principle leads to special effects, which are avoided in counterpoint. In organ registers, certain interval combinations and chords are activated by
1349-404: A traditional key signature . Like most tonal music, it is centred on a tonic and modulates from one tonal centre to another, but it "attempts ... the free use of all the twelve tones of the chromatic scale ", rather than relying on a diatonic scale as a restricted subset of these notes. He even rewrote some of his music after developing this system. One of the core features of Hindemith's system
1420-405: Is a ranking of all musical intervals of the 12-tone equally tempered scale, from the most consonant to the most dissonant . He 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. His philosophy also encompassed melody—he strove for melodies that do not clearly outline major or minor triads. In
1491-530: Is called expanded when the added-part notes vary in length among themselves. The technique requires chains of notes sustained across the boundaries determined by beat, and so creates syncopation . A dissonant interval is allowed on beat 1 because of the syncopation created by the suspension. While it is not incorrect to start with a half note, it is also common to start 4th species with a half rest. Short example of "fourth species" counterpoint In fifth species counterpoint, sometimes called florid counterpoint ,
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#17328737076151562-458: Is in effect, a veritable catalogue of the composer's mature style." The piece, which comprises all 12 major and/or minor keys , starts with a three-part Praeludium in C resembling Johann Sebastian Bach 's toccatas , and ends with a Postludium which is an exact retrograde inversion of the Praeludium. In between, there are twelve three-part fugues separated by eleven interludes, beginning in
1633-543: Is no virtuoso conductor, but he does possess an extraordinary knack of making performers understand how his own music is supposed to go." Hindemith received the Wihuri Sibelius Prize in 1955. He was awarded the Balzan Prize in 1962 "for the wealth, extent and variety of his work, which is among the most valid in contemporary music, and which contains masterpieces of opera, symphonic and chamber music." Despite
1704-439: Is the idea of dissonance resolving to consonance. Much of Hindemith's music begins in consonant territory, progresses into dissonant tension, and resolves in full, consonant chords and cadences . This is especially apparent in his Concert Music for Strings and Brass (1930). Hindemith's complete set of instructional books, in possible educational order: Hindemith was a prolific composer. He conducted some of his own music in
1775-460: Is written for a different small instrumental ensemble, many of them very unusual. Kammermusik No. 6 , for example, is a concerto for the viola d'amore , an instrument that has not been in wide use since the baroque period, but which Hindemith himself played. He continued to write for unusual groups of instruments throughout his life, producing (for example) a trio for viola, heckelphone and piano (1928), seven trios for three trautoniums (1930),
1846-753: The Frankfurt Opera Orchestra in 1914 and was promoted to concertmaster in 1916. He played second violin in the Rebner String Quartet from 1914. After his father's 1915 death in World War I , Hindemith was conscripted into the Imperial German Army in September 1917 and sent to a regiment in Alsace in January 1918. There he was assigned to play bass drum in the regiment band, and also formed
1917-636: The Renaissance period in European music, much contrapuntal music has been written in imitative counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element. The fantasia , the ricercar , and later, the canon and fugue (the contrapuntal form par excellence ) all feature imitative counterpoint, which also frequently appears in choral works such as motets and madrigals . Imitative counterpoint spawned
1988-676: The University at Buffalo , Cornell University , and Wells College . During this time he gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard , from which the book A Composer's World (1952) was extracted. Hindemith had a long friendship with Erich Katz , whose compositions were influenced by him. Also among 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 . Hindemith became
2059-639: The Dooryard Bloom'd ("A Requiem for Those We Love") on LP, conducted by Hindemith. A stereo recording of Hindemith conducting the requiem with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra , with Louise Parker and George London as soloists, was made for Columbia Records in 1963 and later issued on CD. He also appeared on television as a guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 's nationally syndicated "Music from Chicago" series;
2130-514: The U.S. in 1940, he taught primarily at Yale University , where he founded the Yale Collegium Musicum. He had such notable students as Lukas Foss , Graham George , Andrew Hill , Norman Dello Joio , Mel Powell , Yehudi Wyner , Harold Shapero , Hans Otte , Ruth Schönthal , Samuel Adler , Leonard Sarason , Fenno Heath, Tony -winning composer Mitch Leigh , and Oscar -winning film director George Roy Hill . Hindemith also taught at
2201-585: The attention of an international audience. The next year, he composed the song cycle Das Marienleben ( The Life of Mary ) and began to work as an organizer of the Donaueschingen Festival , where he programmed works by several avant-garde composers, including Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg . In 1927 he was appointed Professor at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Hindemith wrote
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2272-560: The baton of Hugh McMillan, conducting the Boulder Symphonic Band at the University of Colorado. The piece is representative of Hindemith's late works, exhibiting strong contrapuntal lines throughout, and is a cornerstone of the band repertoire. He recorded it in stereo with members of the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI in 1956. Most of Hindemith's music employs a unique system that is tonal but non- diatonic , often notated without
2343-526: The cantus firmus is the lower part. (The same cantus firmus is used for later examples also. Each is in the Dorian mode .) In second species counterpoint, two notes in each of the added parts work against each longer note in the given part. Additional considerations in second species counterpoint are as follows, and are in addition to the considerations for first species: In third species counterpoint, four (or three, etc.) notes move against each longer note in
2414-495: The composer than other types of counterpoint and therefore is called a "strict" counterpoint. The student gradually attains the ability to write free counterpoint (that is, less rigorously constrained counterpoint, usually without a cantus firmus) according to the given rules at the time. The idea is at least as old as 1532, when Giovanni Maria Lanfranco described a similar concept in his Scintille di musica (Brescia, 1533). The 16th-century Venetian theorist Zarlino elaborated on
2485-469: The final chapter of Book 1, Hindemith seeks to illustrate the wide-ranging relevance and applicability of his system, analyzing musical examples from the medieval to the contemporary. These analyses include the early Gregorian melody Dies irae , compositions by Guillaume de Machaut , J. S. Bach , Richard Wagner , Igor Stravinsky , Arnold Schoenberg , and a composition of his own. Hindemith's 1942 piano work Ludus Tonalis contains twelve fugues , in
2556-468: The finale to Mozart's Symphony No 41 ("Jupiter" Symphony). Here five tunes combine simultaneously in "a rich tapestry of dialogue": See also Invertible counterpoint . Species counterpoint was developed as a pedagogical tool in which students progress through several "species" of increasing complexity, with a very simple part that remains constant known as the cantus firmus (Latin for "fixed melody"). Species counterpoint generally offers less freedom to
2627-469: The following rules govern the combination of the parts: In first species counterpoint, each note in every added part (parts being also referred to as lines or voices ) sounds against one note in the cantus firmus. Notes in all parts are sounded simultaneously, and move against each other simultaneously. Since all notes in First species counterpoint are whole notes, rhythmic independence is not available. In
2698-482: The given part. Three special figures are introduced into third species and later added to fifth species, and ultimately outside the restrictions of species writing . There are three figures to consider: The nota cambiata , double neighbor tones , and double passing tones . Double neighbor tones: the figure is prolonged over four beats and allows special dissonances. The upper and lower tones are prepared on beat 1 and resolved on beat 4. The fifth note or downbeat of
2769-633: The homogeneity of musical texture when independent voices occasionally disappear turning into a new timbre quality and vice versa. Some examples of related compositional techniques include: the round (familiar in folk traditions), the canon , and perhaps the most complex contrapuntal convention: the fugue . All of these are examples of imitative counterpoint . There are many examples of song melodies that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. For example, " Frère Jacques " and " Three Blind Mice " combine euphoniously when sung together. A number of popular songs that share
2840-555: The horizontal (linear) aspects over the vertical" is featured or the "harmonic control of lines is rejected." Associated with neoclassicism , the technique was first used in Igor Stravinsky 's Octet (1923), inspired by J. S. Bach and Giovanni Palestrina . However, according to Knud Jeppesen : "Bach's and Palestrina's points of departure are antipodal. Palestrina starts out from lines and arrives at chords; Bach's music grows out of an ideally harmonic background, against which
2911-532: The idea in his influential Le institutioni harmoniche , and it was first presented in a codified form in 1619 by Lodovico Zacconi in his Prattica di musica . Zacconi, unlike later theorists, included a few extra contrapuntal techniques, such as invertible counterpoint . In 1725 Johann Joseph Fux published Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Parnassus), in which he described five species: A succession of later theorists quite closely imitated Fux's seminal work, often with some small and idiosyncratic modifications in
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2982-626: The individual voices. The way that is accomplished in detail is ... 'counterpoint'. Counterpoint has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition , strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period , especially in the Baroque period . In Western pedagogy , counterpoint is taught through a system of species (see below). There are several different forms of counterpoint, including imitative counterpoint and free counterpoint. Imitative counterpoint involves
3053-494: The integrity of the individual melodic lines is not sacrificed to harmonic considerations. "Its distinctive feature is rather the concept of melody, which served as the starting-point for the adherents of the 'new objectivity' when they set up linear counterpoint as an anti-type to the Romantic harmony." The voice parts move freely, irrespective of the effects their combined motions may create." In other words, either "the domination of
3124-409: The late 1930s Hindemith wrote an instructional treatise in three volumes, The Craft of Musical Composition , which lays out this system in great detail. He also 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 (an approach strongly tied to diatonic scales). In
3195-486: The late king, and the premiere was given that same evening, the day after the king's death. Other examples of Hindemith's Gebrauchsmusik include: Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is probably the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber , written in 1943. It takes melodies from various works by Carl Maria von Weber , mainly piano duets, but also one from
3266-402: The late nineteenth century." Young composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Mozart , Beethoven , and Schumann , were still educated in the style of "strict" counterpoint, but in practice, they would look for ways to expand on the traditional concepts of the subject. Main features of free counterpoint: Linear counterpoint is "a purely horizontal technique in which
3337-414: The main themes. A further example of fluid counterpoint in late Beethoven may be found in the first orchestral variation on the " Ode to Joy " theme in the last movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 , bars 116–123. The famous theme is heard on the violas and cellos , while "the basses add a bass-line whose sheer unpredictability gives the impression that it is being spontaneously improvised. Meantime
3408-510: The major-minor duality is meaningless and the practice of modulation is dropped, although subject modulation occurs in the second fugue, to create growing tension. Ludus Tonalis consists of 25 movements: There is a striking symmetry around the center of the cycle (the march). Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( / ˈ p aʊ l ˈ h ɪ n d ə m ɪ t / POWL HIN -də-mit ; German: [ˌpaʊ̯l ˈhɪndəmɪt] ; 16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
3479-438: The manner of Johann Sebastian Bach , using traditional devices like inversion, diminution, augmentation, retrogradation, stretto, etc. Each fugue is connected by an interlude to the next, during which the music moves from the key of the last to its successor. The order of the keys follows Hindemith's ranking of musical intervals around the tonal center of C. Another traditional aspect of classical music that Hindemith retains
3550-522: The music for Hans Richter 's 1928 avant-garde film Ghosts Before Breakfast ( Vormittagsspuk ) and also acted in the film; the score and original film were later burned by the Nazis . In 1929, 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, Hindemith married the actress and singer Gertrud (Johanna Gertrude) Rottenberg (1900–1967). The marriage
3621-406: The next measure should move by step in the same direction as the last two notes of the double neighbor figure. Lastly a double passing tone allows two dissonant passing tones in a row. The figure would consist of 4 notes moving in the same direction by step. The two notes that allow dissonance would be beat 2 and 3 or 3 and 4. The dissonant interval of a fourth would proceed into a diminished fifth and
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#17328737076153692-439: The next note would resolve at the interval of a sixth. In fourth species counterpoint, some notes are sustained or suspended in an added part while notes move against them in the given part, often creating a dissonance on the beat, followed by the suspended note then changing (and "catching up") to create a subsequent consonance with the note in the given part as it continues to sound. As before, fourth species counterpoint
3763-461: The non-fugal pieces in Ludus Tonalis frequently repeat the work's main theme. Ludus Tonalis can be thought of as the most direct application of Hindemith's theory that the twelve tones of the equally tempered scale all relate to a single one of them (called a tonic or keynote). The affinity of each note with the keynote is directly related to its position on the harmonic scale. In this system,
3834-614: The opera Mathis der Maler (1938), the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1943), and the oratorio When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1946), a requiem based on Walt Whitman's poem . Hindemith and his wife emigrated to Switzerland and the United States ahead of World War II, after worsening difficulties with the Nazi German regime. In his later years, he conducted and recorded much of his own music. Most of Hindemith's compositions are anchored by
3905-408: The other four species of counterpoint are combined within the added parts. In the example, the first and second bars are second species, the third bar is third species, the fourth and fifth bars are third and embellished fourth species, and the final bar is first species. In florid counterpoint it is important that no one species dominates the composition. Short example of "Florid" counterpoint Since
3976-457: The overture to his incidental music for Turandot (Op. 37/J. 75), and transforms and adapts them so that each movement of the piece is based on one theme. In 1951, Hindemith completed his Symphony in B-flat . Scored for concert band , it was written for the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own" . Hindemith premiered it with that band on 5 April of that year. Its second performance took place under
4047-437: The painter and decorator Robert Hindemith from Lower Silesia and his wife Marie Hindemith, née Warnecke. He was taught the violin as a child. He 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 . At first he supported himself by playing in dance bands and musical-comedy groups. He became deputy leader of
4118-540: The performances have been released by VAI on home video. A complete collection of Hindemith's orchestral music was recorded by German and Australian orchestras, all conducted by Werner Andreas Albert and released on the CPO label. An annual festival of Hindemith's music has been held at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, from 2003 through at least 2017. It features student, staff, and professional musicians performing
4189-453: The present context, a "step" is a melodic interval of a half or whole step. A "skip" is an interval of a third or fourth. (See Steps and skips .) An interval of a fifth or larger is referred to as a "leap". A few further rules given by Fux, by study of the Palestrina style, and usually given in the works of later counterpoint pedagogues, are as follows. In the adjacent example in two parts,
4260-506: The repetition of a main melodic idea across different vocal parts, with or without variation. Compositions written in free counterpoint often incorporate non-traditional harmonies and chords, chromaticism and dissonance . The term "counterpoint" has been used to designate a voice or even an entire composition. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction—only secondarily on the harmonies produced by that interaction. Work initiated by Guerino Mazzola (born 1947) has given counterpoint theory
4331-449: The rules. Many of Fux's rules concerning the purely linear construction of melodies have their origin in solfeggio . Concerning the common practice era, alterations to the melodic rules were introduced to enable the function of certain harmonic forms. The combination of these melodies produced the basic harmonic structure, the figured bass . The following rules apply to melodic writing in each species, for each part: And, in all species,
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#17328737076154402-563: The same chord progression can also be sung together as counterpoint. A well-known pair of examples is " My Way " combined with " Life on Mars ". Johann Sebastian Bach is revered as one of the greatest masters of counterpoint. For example the harmony implied in the opening subject of the Fugue in G-sharp minor from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier is heard anew in a subtle way when
4473-549: The style of the early Schoenberg , before developing a leaner, contrapuntally complex style in the 1920s. This style has been described as neoclassical , but is quite different from the works by Igor Stravinsky labeled with that term, owing more to the contrapuntal language of Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger than the Classical clarity of Mozart . The new style can be heard in the series of works called Kammermusik (Chamber Music) from 1922 to 1927. Each of these pieces
4544-564: The thirties, with Hindemith falling in and out of favour with the Nazis. During the 1930s, Hindemith visited Cairo and also Ankara several times. He 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. In Turkey, he was the leading figure of
4615-401: The tonality of the previous fugue and ending in the tonality of the next fugue (or in a different tonality very close to that). The tonalities of the fugues follow the order of his Serie 1 and use the keynote C (see The Craft of Musical Composition ). Ludus Tonalis was intended to be the twentieth-century equivalent to J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier . Unlike Bach's work, though,
4686-450: The voices develop with a bold independence that is often breath-taking." According to Cunningham, linear harmony is "a frequent approach in the 20th century...[in which lines] are combined with almost careless abandon in the hopes that new 'chords' and 'progressions'...will result." It is possible with "any kind of line, diatonic or duodecuple ". Dissonant counterpoint was originally theorized by Charles Seeger as "at first purely
4757-652: Was a German and American composer, music theorist , teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) style of music in the 1920s, with compositions such as Kammermusik , including works with viola and viola d'amore as solo instruments in a neo- Bachian spirit. Other notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923), Der Schwanendreher for viola and orchestra (1935),
4828-477: Was an exception. It combines the neo-classicism of earlier works with folk song . As a preliminary stage to the composing of this opera, Hindemith wrote a purely instrumental symphony also called Mathis der Maler , which is one of his most frequently performed works. In the opera, some portions of the symphony appear as instrumental interludes; others were elaborated in vocal scenes. Hindemith wrote Gebrauchsmusik (Music for Use)—compositions intended to have
4899-542: Was childless. The Nazis ' relationship to Hindemith's music was complicated. Some condemned his music as " degenerate " (largely based on his early, sexually charged operas such as Sancta Susanna ). In December 1934, during a speech at the Berlin Sports Palace , Germany's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels publicly denounced Hindemith as an "atonal noisemaker". The Nazis banned his music in October 1936, and he
4970-591: Was subsequently included in the 1938 Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) exhibition in Düsseldorf . Other officials working in Nazi Germany , though, thought that he might provide Germany with an example of a modern German composer, as, by this time, he was writing music based in tonality, with frequent references to folk music. The conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler 's defence of Hindemith, published in 1934, takes this line. The controversy around his work continued throughout
5041-540: Was the original cellist. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) style of music in the 1920s, with compositions such as Kammermusik . Reminiscent of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos , they include works with viola and viola d'amore as solo instruments in a neo-Bachian spirit. In 1922, some of his pieces were played in the International Society for Contemporary Music festival at Salzburg , which first brought him to
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