The 'Ragtime' movement in Hindemith's Suite '1922' includes iconoclastic instructions for the player: 'Play this piece very wildly, but keep it in strict rhythm, like a machine. Regard the piano here as an interesting percussion instrument…'.
Composition History
Hindemith's Suite '1922' includes movements stylized after popular music of the day, such as 'Shimmy', 'Boston' (a slow waltz), and 'Ragtime'.
Composer Biography
Paul Hindemith, the composer, was the son of a house-painter and had exceptional musical gifts, playing Bach's Chaconne and Beethoven's Violin Concerto publicly by age twenty.
Composition History
Hindemith, the composer, emigrated to America after the outbreak of World War II, finding resources and an environment for his art to flourish.
Compositional Technique
Ludus Tonalis, a work for solo piano by Hindemith, is subtitled 'Studies in Counterpoint, Tonal Organization and Piano Playing' and is structured in the spirit of Bach's The Art of Fugue.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Hindemith considered tonality a natural force, like gravity, a belief reinforced by his career as a performing musician.
Composer Biography
Hindemith was a talented artist and gifted linguist, but his genius lay in music, and he even designed the title page for his Suite '1922'.
