Hindemith, Paul 1895-1963
German composer

Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, he ran away from home aged 11 because of his parents' opposition to a musical career, and earned a living by playing his instruments in caf�s, cinemas and dance halls. He studied at Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt, and from 1915 to 1923 was leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, which he often conducted. He also played the violin in the Rebner Quartet. In 1927 Hindemith was appointed a professor at the Berlin High School for music, and in 1929 gave the first performance in London of William Walton's Viola Concerto, which influenced his own 'Philharmonic' Concerto (1932). He pioneered Gebrauchsmusik, pieces written with specific utilitarian aims such as children's entertainment, newsreels and community singing, but the Nazis banned his politically pointed Mathis der Maler (1934, symphony, 1938, opera 'Matthias the Painter'). After a short time in the UK, where he composed the Trauermusik ('Mourning Music') for viola and strings (1936) on George V's death, and the ballet Nobilissima Visione (1938, 'Most Noble Vision'), he moved to the USA (1939). His later, mellower compositions include a requiem based on Walt Whitman's commemorative For Those We Love (1944). In 1947 he was appointed a professor at Yale and in 1953 at Zurich, where he composed his opera on Johannes Kepler's life, Die Harmonie der Welt (1957, 'The Harmony of the World'). In 1945 he published Unterweisung im Tosatz (Eng trans The Craft of Musical Composition).

Bibliography: Geoffrey Skelton, Paul Hindemith: The Man Behind the Music (1975)