I learned how to write counterpoint by reading Hindemith's Exercises for Two Part Writing; part two of the Craft of Musical Composition. I would whole heartedly recommend it for anyone wanting to get into this type of composition. Apart from a couple of chapters gathering dust somewhere at Yale University, his Exercises for Three Part Writing remains his only teaching resource without an English translation. I tried some 20 years ago to get a certain publishing company interested in remedying this but it became clear that, in their view, as there was no prospect of making any money from such an endeavour, they were not interested. I even offered to personally fund the translation - I had the book in German - but they basically told me to piss off.
@@cliffpinchon2832 I don't think Sam speaks German and anyway with the rise of the internet the enterprise has become unnecessary. Want to learn ANY kind of counterpoint? Just check out Alan Belkin.
Excellent overview! I became enamored with Hindemith back in college when I apprenticed a truly gifted cellist who was coaching a quartet for a whole semester on Hindemith’s “Clarinet Quartet” (1938). Every week we would meet and the quartet would work on the piece with the coach (while I often turned pages for the pianist). Then I would meet with the coach separately for another session where he and I would discuss the piece and what to focus on as a performer presenting this music. With me being a composer, it was a really life changing moment when I could see the delicate relationship from compositional idea, to the printed music, to the players’ interpretation, to the actual realization in a concert. Truly fantastic! I highly recommend everyone to hear this piece - you might almost think it’s Ravel!
I studied and performed the trumpet concerto in college..I always "felt" the piano part. It seemed jaunty and almost arrhythmic ...and until your video I never realized how simple it was..actually I always felt i was struggling against the piano ..but perhaps this was hindemith's intention all along..to teach perspective as a performer..thanks for sharing all your hard work. I personally think Hindemith had a wicked sense of humor
Regarding the "Jazziness" of the second movement (part 1), I'd add that the left hand of the piano, in some ways, approximates a walking bass line: The regular and quick changes, the care not to repeat the same note too often, and, of course, the staccato.
I'd agree with that. I'd further go on to say that, like jazz, sometimes the bass isn't intended to do anything other than play the basic tonality and rhythm so the horn player can solo. It's not intended to be contrapuntal. That's what I got from this. I'm just starting my Hindemith journey. Saxophone player. Love this composer!
I’ve been waiting for this with bated breath, one of my favourite composers of the twentieth century. His books on composition and harmony were the first things to give me a glimpse of moving beyond standard tonal harmony into something new.
I have absolutely no idea what this guy is talking about and I can't imagine how anyone gets good at composing music like this. It's like I'm listening to someone explain complex mathematics.
I never before realized how repetitive the rhythm is in lots of Hindemith's music. Maybe that's part of what attracted me to his music when I was younger, the repetitive rhythms give something to latch onto during some of the "chromatic craziness." Thanks again for a great video!
Thank you for remembering one of my very favorite composers. I have often found a wonderful sense of melancholy in his music. The recordings by Herbert Blomstedt are never removed from my playlist. I had one beautiful memory of climbing up our humble little Mount Royal at sunrise while listening to Mathis Der Maler. I could only fall on the ground under the great expanse of a winter sky and lose myself completely in the moment. Your right that some of his works may be a bit clunky, so indeed is life. Then again, there are moments of such profundity that it makes one happy to be alive in this world of modern music. On a side note, you live in Strassbourg. My favorite book ever was written there. Tristan, by Gottried Von Strassbourg. A fifty thousand line poem in Middle High German. A most musical language and by far the best telling of this classic of 11th century Christian Mysticism. Love your channel and best of luck.
I'm a post punk, dream pop, psychedelic pop, experimental, singer songwriter kinda guy. But I always tend to jump on some Shostakovitch or Philip Glass and just adore their stuff and now Hindemith, thanks to you. I'll check out your channel more, great stuff.
Really glad to see this. I've heard his name often but never knowingly heard much if any of his work; interesting and accessible stuff. I'm surprised not to have heard more of him.
At 2:30 Hindemith evidently invented arcade game jingles back in 1922! I heard about Hindemith decades ago, as a moderate in the wild years of early 20th century modernism.
Great video! Would love to perform this piece someday. I think Hindemith's Oboe Sonata is one of his best works and certainly one of the best in the oboe repertoire. Would be cool if you did a video analysis of that sonata!
Just your few words made sense for me out of the famous viola sonata . Hindemith is in all the textbooks of my mother's period . I ve yet to hear any of his music progrmmed .
You should really do some analysis of J Dilla. He was the modern version of Mozart. Child prodigy, died in his 30s, left behind a body of work that inspired and changed the following generations. I'd suggest going from Fantastic Vol. 2 to his magnum opus Donuts. His collaboration album with Madlib "Jaylib" and his experimental beat albums "Welcome 2 Detroit" and "Ruff Drafts" are also must listens. Polystylistic, his music ranged from Brazillian sambas, to Detroit techno. Rhythmically, his off-kilter, sixteenth note triplet swing, "drunken style" innovations (along with D'angelo) basically changed how 21st century drummers have played from Chris Dave, to Karriem Riggins, to Questlove, to many others
Somehow surreal like René Magritte the Belgian surrealist or perhaps M.C.Escher as much as your cartoonist. He leads you down the tonal path; but huh? His texts about counterpoint should be mentioned. I love that Gould recording of one of his fugues .
It's only quite recently I realised opinion on Hindemith seems to be divided- first I heard from him was Kammermusik, and have found that (and pretty much everything else from him I've heard) to be pretty easy on the ears, but not lacking in depth (a bit like Stravinsky or Bartok). Great analysis as always
Hello, you asked if I would make my videos available as a podcast. I have done this -- the podcast is available on Buzzsprout, iTunes and Spotify: www.buzzsprout.com/266909/989001-episode-1-how-i-solved-a-compositional-problem
Samuel, this is great, and the Trio is a piece I'd never come across, thanks for bringing it to my attention. Another Hindemith work from this period that fascinates me is the Konzertmusik Op.49 - for solo piano, brass and two harps. Do you know it? The third movement is a theme and three variations for the piano and harps alone, the last movement contains a setting of an old German folksong 'Reiters Abschied'. I think it's a very fine work.
Thanks Samuel! Fascinating! I'm working on this piece at the moment and will be doing two performances of it in Frankfurt in Hindemith's Tower on 12th May. It would be great to meet you if you are anywhere nearby around then.
The aesthetic isn't the old world classical or heroic aesthetic it's lighter, where as Schoenberg might still be an extension of that Faustian thing somehow. Perhaps like T.S. Elliot, E.E. Commings, Stravinsky, Chaplin and the Jazz Age he too was influenced by that horrible war.
25:07 Isn't that a 3 against 5 polymeter, not polyrhythm? It's not that 3 divisions in one part are taking the same amount of time as 5 in another, but that one part is split into sections of 3 units while the other 5. Edit: just after posting the question I realized where the polyrhythm is. Never mind haha
More like the Viola d'amore of the wind section (as in, a wind instrument that had a cult following in the late 19th-early 20th century but no one really knows about anymore)
Thanks for the grest video, but did you know that Hindemith used a tonal system? He has written a theory, whuch advances the typical harmony. I mention this because you sais his harmony is freely, but I don't think so, he hated the concept of atonality he was aware of being constantly in a tonal centre
Thank you for your comment. As I tried to make clear in my video, Hindemith didn't begin theorising / formalising his music until the early 1930s, and this piece predates that by at least 5 years. His early music appears to be fairly freely written.
I have a love hate with Hindemith, some of it is great, like some of the Ludus Tonalis, but his piano sonatas sound like german jazz... in a bad way :D
If only he carried on writing stuff as good as the solo sonata! Instead of all those sonatas which are, in. the end, scales going up and down -dur-de-nur-nur-nur type rhythms and the strong suspicion that you could adjust the tessitura and change instrumentation and then have a'new' sonata.
@@samuel_andreyev Haha, I get what you're saying .. Anyway, I really enjoyed watching this one and a couple of your other ones. I like the biographical / history of music commentary and overall insights the best. Your videos are incredibly good. I bet you'd get more views, subscribers, etc., if you made some videos that were for the knowledge-seeking concert go-er - - biographical info, history of music, general history, comparisons to other composers - the form discussion is good but sometimes you loose me when it gets too technical for too long. Perhaps something about 12-18 minutes long. Don't stop what your doing - maybe do this too, and tap the larger stream .. Your very gifted - hope you can build on that.
"the same rhythmic formula repeated mechanically over and over" the dude invented avant pop, it seems. 100 years from now all pop music will sound like it, but with synths
the heckelphone is beautiful
I learned how to write counterpoint by reading Hindemith's Exercises for Two Part Writing; part two of the Craft of Musical Composition. I would whole heartedly recommend it for anyone wanting to get into this type of composition. Apart from a couple of chapters gathering dust somewhere at Yale University, his Exercises for Three Part Writing remains his only teaching resource without an English translation. I tried some 20 years ago to get a certain publishing company interested in remedying this but it became clear that, in their view, as there was no prospect of making any money from such an endeavour, they were not interested. I even offered to personally fund the translation - I had the book in German - but they basically told me to piss off.
@@cliffpinchon2832 I don't think Sam speaks German and anyway with the rise of the internet the enterprise has become unnecessary. Want to learn ANY kind of counterpoint? Just check out Alan Belkin.
Has anyone tried Schoenberg's manual? I'm into it since 1,5 years ago and it completely changed my score writing...
I'm german, if you want you can send me the exercises and I'll translate them for you. You can also tyoe in the sentences into a translator
Excellent overview! I became enamored with Hindemith back in college when I apprenticed a truly gifted cellist who was coaching a quartet for a whole semester on Hindemith’s “Clarinet Quartet” (1938). Every week we would meet and the quartet would work on the piece with the coach (while I often turned pages for the pianist). Then I would meet with the coach separately for another session where he and I would discuss the piece and what to focus on as a performer presenting this music. With me being a composer, it was a really life changing moment when I could see the delicate relationship from compositional idea, to the printed music, to the players’ interpretation, to the actual realization in a concert. Truly fantastic!
I highly recommend everyone to hear this piece - you might almost think it’s Ravel!
Probably the greatest heckelphone composition ever!
probably ;)
I always put Hindemith in the "worthy but boring" category. Thanks for encouraging me to give him another listen
I studied and performed the trumpet concerto in college..I always "felt" the piano part. It seemed jaunty and almost arrhythmic ...and until your video I never realized how simple it was..actually I always felt i was struggling against the piano ..but perhaps this was hindemith's intention all along..to teach perspective as a performer..thanks for sharing all your hard work. I personally think Hindemith had a wicked sense of humor
Regarding the "Jazziness" of the second movement (part 1), I'd add that the left hand of the piano, in some ways, approximates a walking bass line: The regular and quick changes, the care not to repeat the same note too often, and, of course, the staccato.
I'd agree with that. I'd further go on to say that, like jazz, sometimes the bass isn't intended to do anything other than play the basic tonality and rhythm so the horn player can solo. It's not intended to be contrapuntal. That's what I got from this. I'm just starting my Hindemith journey. Saxophone player. Love this composer!
I’ve been waiting for this with bated breath, one of my favourite composers of the twentieth century. His books on composition and harmony were the first things to give me a glimpse of moving beyond standard tonal harmony into something new.
I have absolutely no idea what this guy is talking about and I can't imagine how anyone gets good at composing music like this. It's like I'm listening to someone explain complex mathematics.
I never before realized how repetitive the rhythm is in lots of Hindemith's music. Maybe that's part of what attracted me to his music when I was younger, the repetitive rhythms give something to latch onto during some of the "chromatic craziness." Thanks again for a great video!
I think you are exactly right
Do you still like listening to Hindemith, or have you moved past him? I still enjoy a lot of his music, especially Ludus Tonalis.
I adore Hindemith. Thanks.
Thank you for remembering one of my very favorite composers. I have often found a wonderful sense of melancholy in his music. The recordings by Herbert Blomstedt are never removed from my playlist. I had one beautiful memory of climbing up our humble little Mount Royal at sunrise while listening to Mathis Der Maler. I could only fall on the ground under the great expanse of a winter sky and lose myself completely in the moment. Your right that some of his works may be a bit clunky, so indeed is life. Then again, there are moments of such profundity that it makes one happy to be alive in this world of modern music. On a side note, you live in Strassbourg. My favorite book ever was written there. Tristan, by Gottried Von Strassbourg. A fifty thousand line poem in Middle High German. A most musical language and by far the best telling of this classic of 11th century Christian Mysticism. Love your channel and best of luck.
Thank you for your interesting reflections on Hindemith (and my chosen city!). Best regards.
Excellent! Thanks. One of my favorites is Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat for Concert Band. Also, the Cello Concerto.
Hindemith is a huge reason why 50 years ago I chose to be a composer. Today, I'm considered an oddball.
In an age of distractions so few take the time to be truly skilled at any one discipline. Bravo Samuel, great analysis.
I'm a post punk, dream pop, psychedelic pop, experimental, singer songwriter kinda guy. But I always tend to jump on some Shostakovitch or Philip Glass and just adore their stuff and now Hindemith, thanks to you. I'll check out your channel more, great stuff.
I had never really understood Hindemith until now. Thanks so much for your explanation of his style and musical philosophies.
Really glad to see this. I've heard his name often but never knowingly heard much if any of his work; interesting and accessible stuff. I'm surprised not to have heard more of him.
Wunderbar, vielen Dank Samuel!
My favourite composer.
Superb exposition of Hindemith the man and his music. I learnt a lot.
Paul Hindemith is amazing!
At 2:30 Hindemith evidently invented arcade game jingles back in 1922!
I heard about Hindemith decades ago, as a moderate in the wild years of early 20th century modernism.
Look at you posting two videos in a week. Good stuff sam, never liked hindemith but now i have a better idea on how to get something out of him.
Great video as always. I'd really appreciate an analysis of some of Tōru Takemitsu's works. Thanks in advantage.
I'm planning to do that.
Hindemith has always been an intriguing but distant composer. Thank you for an awesome video once again!
This is excellent.
Great video! Would love to perform this piece someday. I think Hindemith's Oboe Sonata is one of his best works and certainly one of the best in the oboe repertoire. Would be cool if you did a video analysis of that sonata!
Just your few words made sense for me out of the famous viola sonata . Hindemith is in all the textbooks of my mother's period . I ve yet to hear any of his music progrmmed .
Glad to hear that. The early works are well worth hearing.
Thanks! This was really entertaining and informative.
Why is life so trippy
Because you're on drugs.
Ah I love this piece! Thank you!
You should really do some analysis of J Dilla. He was the modern version of Mozart. Child prodigy, died in his 30s, left behind a body of work that inspired and changed the following generations. I'd suggest going from Fantastic Vol. 2 to his magnum opus Donuts. His collaboration album with Madlib "Jaylib" and his experimental beat albums "Welcome 2 Detroit" and "Ruff Drafts" are also must listens. Polystylistic, his music ranged from Brazillian sambas, to Detroit techno. Rhythmically, his off-kilter, sixteenth note triplet swing, "drunken style" innovations (along with D'angelo) basically changed how 21st century drummers have played from Chris Dave, to Karriem Riggins, to Questlove, to many others
I'm familiar with Donuts. It's a very good album.
Somehow surreal like René Magritte the Belgian surrealist or perhaps M.C.Escher as much as your cartoonist. He leads you down the tonal path; but huh? His texts about counterpoint should be mentioned. I love that Gould recording of one of his fugues .
Heard about you on Adam Neely's stream today, so happy I found you! This is really interesting and well-produced.
Thanks, and welcome to the channel.
It's only quite recently I realised opinion on Hindemith seems to be divided- first I heard from him was Kammermusik, and have found that (and pretty much everything else from him I've heard) to be pretty easy on the ears, but not lacking in depth (a bit like Stravinsky or Bartok). Great analysis as always
could you provide a list of 12 tone compositions for viola solo.
Hey, i'd love if you would make your videos also available as podcasts, if thats possible.
Thought i'd let you know.
Thanks.
I have plans to do this, but I'm very short on time, so I don't know when I'll be able to. Thanks for your note.
Hello, you asked if I would make my videos available as a podcast. I have done this -- the podcast is available on Buzzsprout, iTunes and Spotify:
www.buzzsprout.com/266909/989001-episode-1-how-i-solved-a-compositional-problem
your videos are so entertaining! Is a nice way to get into composers i never actually gave a shot..
If as you state he was an expressionist, then how could you miss that much of society is repetitious?
Love Hindemith, thanks for the vid.
This was surprisingly entertaining!
Samuel, this is great, and the Trio is a piece I'd never come across, thanks for bringing it to my attention. Another Hindemith work from this period that fascinates me is the Konzertmusik Op.49 - for solo piano, brass and two harps. Do you know it? The third movement is a theme and three variations for the piano and harps alone, the last movement contains a setting of an old German folksong 'Reiters Abschied'. I think it's a very fine work.
I don't know that one, but I'll listen. Thanks.
Thanks Samuel! Fascinating! I'm working on this piece at the moment and will be doing two performances of it in Frankfurt in Hindemith's Tower on 12th May. It would be great to meet you if you are anywhere nearby around then.
I'll mark the date in case it works out, thanks for letting me know. It would be good to meet you. I could show you #19!
The aesthetic isn't the old world classical or heroic aesthetic it's lighter, where as Schoenberg might still be an extension of that Faustian thing somehow. Perhaps like T.S. Elliot, E.E. Commings, Stravinsky, Chaplin and the Jazz Age he too was influenced by that horrible war.
25:07
Isn't that a 3 against 5 polymeter, not polyrhythm? It's not that 3 divisions in one part are taking the same amount of time as 5 in another, but that one part is split into sections of 3 units while the other 5.
Edit: just after posting the question I realized where the polyrhythm is. Never mind haha
would you like make a video about john fahey
Hey Mr Andreyev, what's your favorite LP? Great video, the quality is really improving!
You should do Opus clavicembalisticum next
10:13 lol he ridin'
In German Duett ≠ Duo ;) as it follows an arioso, also this term refers to opera. ;)
Good to know that -- thank you!
Is the heckelphone the viola of the oboe section?
More like the Viola d'amore of the wind section (as in, a wind instrument that had a cult following in the late 19th-early 20th century but no one really knows about anymore)
Thanks for the grest video, but did you know that Hindemith used a tonal system? He has written a theory, whuch advances the typical harmony. I mention this because you sais his harmony is freely, but I don't think so, he hated the concept of atonality he was aware of being constantly in a tonal centre
Thank you for your comment. As I tried to make clear in my video, Hindemith didn't begin theorising / formalising his music until the early 1930s, and this piece predates that by at least 5 years. His early music appears to be fairly freely written.
19.40 et seq. D sharp????
I should have known you were making a video about Hindemith, how can such an important composer slip my mind so easily?
15:00 I wonder: is this free wandering tonality somehow related to Coltrane's Giant Steps?
I don't know what kind of relation your talking about because Giant Steps is more recent by "a few" years.
👍🏼🙏❤️
5:50 This... kinda sounds like metal, in a very weird way ;D
I have a love hate with Hindemith, some of it is great, like some of the Ludus Tonalis, but his piano sonatas sound like german jazz... in a bad way :D
If only he carried on writing stuff as good as the solo sonata! Instead of all those sonatas which are, in. the end, scales going up and down -dur-de-nur-nur-nur type rhythms and the strong suspicion that you could adjust the tessitura and change instrumentation and then have a'new' sonata.
The th is is just pronounced as a t.
Yes I know, but I can't bring myself to say it that way in English.
@@samuel_andreyev fair enough I guess. Thank you for the wonderful analysis!
Hindemith, my way. Forget Pierre Boulez.
If every viewer contributed $1 for watching, this video would make you $13,000
if mathematics were infinite, then trains would always run on time.
@@samuel_andreyev Haha, I get what you're saying .. Anyway, I really enjoyed watching this one and a couple of your other ones. I like the biographical / history of music commentary and overall insights the best. Your videos are incredibly good. I bet you'd get more views, subscribers, etc., if you made some videos that were for the knowledge-seeking concert go-er - - biographical info, history of music, general history, comparisons to other composers - the form discussion is good but sometimes you loose me when it gets too technical for too long. Perhaps something about 12-18 minutes long. Don't stop what your doing - maybe do this too, and tap the larger stream .. Your very gifted - hope you can build on that.
Thank you. I am working on a series of videos that will be shorter and less technical. The next one is coming on Wednesday!
"the same rhythmic formula repeated mechanically over and over"
the dude invented avant pop, it seems. 100 years from now all pop music will sound like it, but with synths