Klarinet Archive - Posting 000968.txt from 2002/11

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Trivia --- Hindemith
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 18:09:09 -0500

In a message dated 11/21/2002 10:10:23 PM Eastern Standard Time, Bi6W@-----.net writes:

> I don't enjoy serial or atonal music, and therefore I don't have even
> one Hindemith composition in my CD collection. But when I consult the
> encyclopedia, it says that Hindemith "showed a free and highly
> resourceful treatment of traditional form and tonality" --- which isn't
> quite the same thing as serial or atonal. Later in his life, "his
> style entered a new phase, marked by increased clarity of tonality and
> form and greater expressiveness of melody."
>
> So perhaps I need to search out a composition or two of his and listen
> to them. Any suggestions for someone who dislikes serial and atonal and
> strident (such as the yowling first movement of Strauss's Domestic
> Symphony,>>

Bill, back to basic music history/music theory for you. Neither Hindemith or Strauss would ever be considered serial OR atonal. Both were clearly grounded in tonality. Strauss's music is an extension of late 19th century romanticism. Hindemith is considered "Neo-Classical".

Hindemith may have flirted with serial composition sometime in his career, but he was far more interested in new sounds within traditional tonality. Notice in the clarinet sonata the predominance of the interval of the fourth, both melodically and harmonically.

Strauss flirted with multiple tonalities, remember the old Bernstein/New York Philharmonic broadcast explaining the ambiguous ending of "Zarathustra"? But Strauss, atonal? I think not.

Walter
www.clarinetxpress.com
great bass clarinet mouthpieces

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