A Composer S World Harizons And Limitations

by Paul Hindemith

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Genres: Music, Nonfiction

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor. In the 1920s, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) style of music.
Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923), Der Schwanendreher for viola and orchestra (1935), and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is likely the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943.

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how interesting this book will be unless you love the music of Paul Hindemith, something I'm quite passionate about, but maybe you will find his essays describing the process of turning sound into music worth reading.

The first group of chapters were the most interesting. He got a bit cranky towards the end of the book and I didn't entirely agree with his perspective.

His first chapter, The Philosophical Approach discusses various scholars throughout the ages, such as Boethius and Augustine and how they defined music. I found quite a few thought-provoking gems through out this chapter.

Hindemith describes Augustine's philosophy of music thus: "Musical impressions are by no means simple reactions to external stimuli but rather a complex mixture of sound and though sound can exist independent of a listener, one must hear before they can perceive and mentally absorb what took place. This in turn releases reactions in the brain's center of hearing. Then we must imagine music mentally. Furthermore, music conjurs up mental images from prior experiences and adds to these experiences."

For the rest of the review cut and paste the link to my blog post:

http://sharonhenning.blogspot.com/201...

[Russell Posegate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to get through.

I have enormous respect for Hindemith as a composer. His style is unique, engaging, and exciting even as it is dense, difficult, and maybe a bit academic. Perhaps to be expected this book is also dense, a bit hard to digest, and academic/esoteric. Occasionally exciting, it offers up the occasional gem for an intrepid reader, including a long discussion of equal temperament and a defense of his legendary practice of forcing his composition students to be proficient enough on each instrument they wrote for to personally play all their own compositions.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall great book
I enjoyed the chapters on Education and Instruments, really true to Hindemith's character, if you do not know I suggest reading some other works not by him but about him first otherwise to you completely misunderstand his humor.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I see that biographies of Paul make his life look rather messy, this book was fantastic. Lots of things that I agree with, having spent so many years thinking music through before I ever read what any other musicians had to say on the same subjects; and his way with words is very nice. There are some things that made my eyebrows wrinkle a little to read, but it's not like I read the book to identify true principles that always apply to everything, so I'm not worried that some of his conclusions don't end up in the same places mine might have if I'd gone down the same roads.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A transcript of Hindemith's lectures for the C.E. Norton seat at Harvard in 1949-50. A little bit dense for the average musician. For those who tend to dabble in philosophy as well as music. If these are too tough for you, I'd recommend Leonard Bernstein's Norton lectures ("The Unanswered Question") in book or film (available on DVD!).

[Burak Öztürk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, in this book, there are so many subjective attitudes that doesn't match with the today's contemporary composers.