by Katherine Hoover
Posted with permission
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:51:35 -0500
From: Katherine Hoover <khoover@PAPAGENAPRESS.COM>
Subject: Hindemith Sonata
I had the great luck to work with and perform this piece with a pianist/conductor/scholar named John Coleman who was in Germany studying with Hindemith at the time he wrote this piece. Although Hindemith was not Jewish, he was accused of being influenced by Jewish music (the Nazis didn't like his modernism), and eventually had to flee the country for his safety. In 1936 he had been assigned a basement room to teach in, whose small windows faced a courtyard where a Nazi marching band often practiced. He told the class that
the last movement of the sonata, a sarcastic march, came from this experience. There was no mention of the other movements.
The second movement, of course, is one of the jewels of the flute literature - particularly precious as it contains a depth of feeling - a tragic sense - that other composers have not conceived of for this instrument. In this movement it is important to realize that the first phrase moves not to the A, the flute high note, but to the F in measure 8, which is the harmonic climax of the phrase.
It is a strong work from beginning to end. The first movement is a modified sonata allegro, and an simple, general analysis of how he used this form will clarify the dynamic markings, and make for a stronger, more unified performance. In particular, the development section, which begins at 4, should build inevitably to the recap at 6. The third movement is pure joy, with interspersed anxiety about the low notes...
Great piece. Hindemith is not thought of so highly these days, but before downgrading his gifts, be sure to listen to the symphony "Mathis der Mahler", and his "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber".
Katherine Hoover
