Musical Offerings (Mar 2018)
The Personal Tragedy in Paul Hindemith's Mathis de Maler
Abstract
Paul Hindemith is hardly remembered for his music prior to the 1940s. During the Nazi occupation of Germany in the early 20th century, Paul Hindemith, reviled for his modernistic styles and relation to his Jewish wife, was forced to emigrate out of the Third Reich for his safety. Hindemith was known for his connections to New Objectivity, Gebrachsmusik, and tonality instability placed him in the wrong realm of composition in the Nazi’s minds. As Hitler rose to power in 1933, Hindemith knew he would need a composition to prove his worth amongst the Nazis. As such, Hindemith attempted to change his tides through the composition of the opera/symphony Mathis der Maler. Mathis featured the strong tonality, German nationalism, and Romantic monumentality the Nazis were hoping for to strengthen their regime and the global understanding of German culture. However, Mathis also illustrated Hindemith’s personal pains and struggles with the Reich.
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