The Suite finishes with a Gigue, which in its idea and use of rhythmic material is similar to the Courante. The main motivic material is found in the blue box and this is a rhythm that returns several times in different transformations. Especially the opening rhythm of the upbeat 8th note followed by the dotted quarter is an important element connecting the sections and sometimes creating a standstill in the whirlwind that this quick Gigue is. The whole opening phrase however also returns and is the main building block of which most rhythmical elements of the movement are taken. The three 8th notes, either in a scale like motion or with a jump down to a different note between two reappearing notes are definite clear structural elements of this movement. (see Fig. 7)
In the example underneath, of the middle section, we see a long whispering pp section so no big echo effects can be reached here as there’s not that big of a space for contrast. Yet, the second bar echo can be played as an almost inaudible whisper as it’s nothing new and doesn’t have the tension to require a stronger build-up. In the ‘sequence echoes’, Hindemith asks for a crescendo, building up the harmonic tension to reach the climax at the forte to then wind down again. At the ending of the section, we again see a short element repeated multiple times in a crescendo motion. (see Fig. 20)
In the fourth movement, ‘Rasendes Zeitmaß. Wild. Tonschönheit ist Nebensache.’, sequences are more prevalent than echoes, although unsurprisingly in this movement with the word ‘wild’ in its title, every repeated bar can only be played either louder or at least with more conviction than its predecessor. (see Fig. 21 and 22)
It’s however the Courante, and to a much lesser extent, the Gigue and the Sarabande, that use sequences abundantly. The Gavottes don’t have any, due to their more thematic structure and the Allemande lacks many of our main elements as it’s very fantasia like and much more structurally free. The approach of structuring sequences in scale- or chord-like steps is the most often used method. (see Fig. 24 and 25)
Each of the two Gavottes has its own motive around which they are build up. The continuity of the Gavotte movement as a whole, however is created by using the same general rhythmic material, namely only 8ths and quarters, often using two to four subsequent quarters, as well as 8ths only appearing in groups of two or four. This rhythmic continuity can also be recognised in the main motives and this connection is important to note as the rhythmic elements returning are often simply rhythmic structures taken out of an individual bar of the longer motive. Important to take into consideration is that the Gavottes individually are rather short movements and the fact that the material doesn’t reappear often and when it does, has more of a thematic function, as it’s a longer phrase than the motives we saw before, it mostly has the function of marking the start of a new section and the element has a more melodic build-up than the previous ones. The material of Gavotte I reappears transposed but the opening line of Gavotte II only reappears in its original form. Again never any rhythmic alterations are made to our main material. (see Fig. 5 and 6)
In the fourth movement, ‘Rasendes Zeitmaß. Wild. Tonschönheit ist Nebensache.’, movement continuity is key. The movement consists of just quarters without any exceptions and is to be performed in an insanely fast tempo. The motive consists of a pedal tone as well as a melodic idea inside of it. This reflects the structure of the whole movement as there is and almost constant pedal tone, mostly on C, present, alternated with a somewhat melodic line. The movement continuity due to the single rhythmic value throughout the whole movement is very reminiscent to the Prelude of Bach’s 6th Suite as this movement consists of only 8ths with some ventures to 16ths as well as slightly longer values in the final part of the Prelude. This making a very strong connection in idea of the movement, as the goal of this movement continuity was to create a complete picture of a piece for an audience, rather than having them be distracted by every small, but beautiful, detail, inside the movement. (see Fig. 11)
In Hindemith’s solo sonata there are also many examples of these ‘echoes’, yet whereas in Bach it’s written with the true echo effect of the second time being softer, Hindemith uses these consequent repeated measures mostly as confirmations, to strengthen the original idea. This results in these ‘echoes’ often going in crescendo or at least staying in the same dynamic, however there are of course also a few exceptions to this.
In this middle section, between the green brackets we notice Hindemith’s avid use of repeated bars. In the first brackets (3 bars before letter B), due to the harmonic feel as well the ff in B, we notice these bars asking for a strong build-up with some crescendo, with each bar the confirmation of the idea gets strengthened. In the section afterwards, marked ‘beruhigen’, this calming down also creates a more echo like effect, which is especially prevalent in the 16th section before the crescendo marking. Here, the echo effect is even stronger because the diminuendo goes hand in hand with the calming down of the section. (see Fig.17)
Throughout the beginning and ending section of the first movement, Hindemith often uses repeated materials although not always directly connected , or sometimes with a small change at the ending of the repeated element. It shows that even when less obvious, Hindemith’s music also clearly consisted of building blocks, sometimes they get developed into a longer phrase before the initial idea returns right after but it almost always reappears in some shape or way. As we can see in the blue boxes marked throughout the beginning of the movement. (see Fig. 18)
Sequences, 200 years apart
An all important element appearing in both Bach and Hindemith’s music in a very similar way is their use of sequences.
In the Prelude, due to the extreme use of echoes, there are not many sequences, however there is a clear sequence with a strong harmonic build-up when going towards the rhythmically more flexible section, as there are 16ths there, towards the end. In this sequence there is also a D pedal at the beginning of each bar. (see Fig. 23)
Generally, when assessing the sequences and their use, we can see that Hindemith is slightly more flexible with the intervals inside the sequence not being the exact same, yet the overall motion and jumps are the same. In Bach, the sequences are closely connected to the harmony and the dynamic goes up when the tension rises and down when reaching a resolution. In Hindemith, even though his harmonic language is very different, we see the same tendency, especially as he, even more than Bach uses scale-like build-ups in his sequences. As with the ‘echoes’ however, I believe this is just a stylistic change, Bach’s build-ups tend to be performed in dynamic steps while in Hindemith we again see the more gradual crescendo or diminuendo instead of a new dynamic at the start of each element.
While Bach's and Hindemith’s use of this movement acceleration technique has a different approach, namely Bach including it as a tool throughout his big structure while Hindemith uses it to manipulate small motivic elements. Even though it’s not always the case for Hindemith, both do have a general tendency to use this technique towards the endings of movements, as to introduce some new flow after a more stable start.
Mathematical aspects and symmetrical ideas in the general structure
The general consideration of Bach and Hindemith’s music being mathematical, makes sense when finding all the building blocks. These building blocks are usually one to four bar structures, these can be a sequence, a repeated passage, a shortened version of a motive or idea, …
This idea of evenness through these concise building blocks, which most of the time consists of an even number of bars, adds to a symmetrical feeling. Within the big sections of the pieces, the blocks also fit together very well, as even when a new element gets introduced, it’s usually rhythmically connected to the previous building block by incorporating one of the rhythms from before or a written out rhythmic acceleration based off the previous rhythm. Adding to the building blocks’ strength is the, generally speaking, strict rhythmical nature of Bach and Hindemith’s composing style.
The return of these familiar elements or building blocks, even with a changed number of bars or in a further development, makes the music feel incredibly structured. Bach does this throughout the Suites, less in the Allemande but very obvious in the other movements. It’s also what makes Hindemith’s Sonata feel very stable and strict even with a meter that changes all the time. As long as the base of the building block is the same, other ideas can change but the mathematical evenness will remain.
The general form of the Suite movements and the Solo Sonata might not be the same, yet it’s still based on repeating elements. In the Suites we have a ritornello structure (which has a repeating refrain with other sections in between) and binary forms, which each time they’re used here, incorporate the main idea of the beginning in their second part. In the Solo Sonata, we discover ternary forms meaning the beginning of the piece returns at the end (with or without some variation).
The rhythmic frame and its deep-rooted motives
The structure of both the 6th Bach Suite as well as of Hindemith’s Solo Sonata is extremely connected to strong rhythmical structures. These are created by every movement having its own clearly defined motive forming the red thread. Here, I will present the motives with a small description, later touching on some more details of some of the consisting elements. The only exception on this motivic base, is the Allemande of the 6th Suite which is much more fantasia like than all the others, yet the rhythmical elements used, even though used freely, are fairly similar to each other as seen in the many eight or quarter note chords followed by seemingly improvisatory lines of 32nds and sometimes 64ths. (see Fig. 1)
The Courante is the first dance and as it’s rather quick it has a clear rhythmic motive. The short version of the motive, seen in the small blue box in the first bar, is rhythmic material that returns numerous times throughout the movement and is also very flexible as it undergoes inversions, transpositions and other transformations with the notes, the rhythm however does not change. The bigger box, showing the main motivic material, is material that reappears with the 8ths often showing the triads or harmonic direction. (see Fig. 3)
Hindemith’s Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1: Main motivic material
In the first movement, ‘Breit Viertel’, we find a strong motive of just one bar (which opens the movement), slightly dissonant sounding, while still including a chromatic line going up from D to E, intertwined inside the chords. This motive appears multiple times throughout the short one page movement, making it very persistent due to the sound of the chords as well as that it always appearing unchanged. The longer material of four bars (as pictured below), later reduced to three bars when using it without repetition of the main motive, is material that repeats when marking the new section. It appears once in a variation when looking at the ending of the first section where we see some kind of inversion of the second half of the long motivic material. The short one bar motive appears multiple times without necessarily marking a new section. (see Fig. 8)
In terms of motivic material, our final fifth movement, ‘Langsam, mit viel Ausdruck’, is extremely similar to our third movement. Again a slow movement, including the Sarabande rhythm and feeling, as well as a melodic very transformation flexible movement, with again the rhythm unchanged throughout its returns inside the movement, as seen in the blue box. When talking about the more thematic motivic material, the longer section is mainly returning to show the return to the main section A after a middle section B. Never really strongly developed, except for a few transposed versions. (see Fig. 12)
The conclusions we can draw from looking at all this motivic material and the flexibility of its use is that rhythm was the basis of both Bach and Hindemith’s music. Not once throughout all these movements was the motivic or thematic material developed by making changes in the rhythm. The strength in their structures came from the strong rhythmical frame they created, often using the main rhythmic element to mark new sections. In Hindemith we can see that in the faster paced movements, the motive also truly serves as the motor and this motor does not change at all, not even by one note, making the music harder but also more convincing and clear as it’s very persistent on what it wants to say. In Bach, I would consider the Prelude to be closest to these movements as it also has a strong rhythmical motor, but as Bach’s approach to harmony was obviously more traditional, the structural emphasis created by the motive also shows the harmonic progressions throughout the sections. Yet this opening motive of the 6th Suite is very strong and very convincing because of its completely equal rhythm of all 8ths and its piano repetition.
The slower movements (except for the Allemande) are essentially all Sarabandes as their motivic material has the same rhythm. In Hindemith, it’s written in a quarter time signature, in Bach, it’s in a half note time signature. The importance of the second beat is prevalent throughout the movements. An interesting thing to note is that when Hindemith uses this Sarabande motive in his third and fifth movement of the Sonata, the development of the melodic material is almost without limits as the motive appears numerous times throughout the movement, to keep our pulse focused on the second beat of the bar, it takes almost any melodic form possible. This approach shows more freedom in Hindemith’s writing, whereas the Sarabande in Bach is a fairly simple movement without too many melodic distractions from its main rhythm.
In the second movement of Hindemith’s Sonata, we see a very similar approach, using the middle section for mostly exact repeated consecutive bars, this time including some more sequences in the mix however. The other opening and ending section are also very similar to the first movement with at the end of the section a striking example on Hindemith’s use of repeated material. (see Fig. 19)
In Hindemith sequences are present in all movements, the movements that have more echoes have less sequences but never none at all. Sequences are also used just with a big transposition but the scale-like approach is his most used one, also chromatic scale movement is very prevalent. (see Fig. 26-31)
Movement acceleration inside the written notes
This might be one of the less obvious elements presented, yet in different approaches, it is one that is to be found in some movements of both the Bach Suite as well as the Hindemith Sonata. When discussing movement acceleration inside the written notes, I’m talking about there being more movement being created due to often, faster rhythmic material and specific technique, so not discussing printed accelerando markings in the music.
In Bach, this movement acceleration is approached as more of a general movement, usually leading us to the end of the movement and less focussed inside the smaller building blocks. The Prelude, Courante and the Gigue show us Bach’s use of this technique.
In the Prelude, a movement acceleration starts in b78, with the first appearance of 16ths and 32nds after the constant 8ths. This gets developed into a cadenza-like section leading into more 16ths from b82-89. Then reaching the coda or closing section of the movement after the final appearance of the main motive (b90-93). This closing section starts with a series of 16ths (b94-95) finally calming back down to the 8ths in b96. In this movement we even see a deceleration when the constant 8ths turn to one 8th note chord on every strong beat in b98-99, finally going back to the constant 8ths when reaching G major for the last time.
In the Courante and the Gigue it’s a more general tendency of using more and more 16th note passages towards the end of the movements. In the Courante this leads to a less present main motive in its second half. In the Gigue even the main motivic material gets transformed into some sort of shortened variation with 16ths in b53.
Even the Allemande shows this tendency a little, as throughout the whole movement when there’s attention put on a note it often is a dotted 8th note, however from the ending of b15-b20 (the end of the movement), only two more dotted 8th notes appear including the final note. This shows us that the general speed has gained more continuity as the shorter rhythmic values without the ‘breaks’ of the longer ones to breathe, create the effect of more direction towards the ending of the movement.
The other slow movement, the Sarabande, also shows a slight tendency to written acceleration towards the end as from around b17, we have almost constant quarters present towards the end, whereas before it was more strongly build-up around the main Sarabande motive which only includes one quarter at the end.
The use of more and more quicker rhythmic values helps keep a flow and direction of the movement and takes away from the more static, more ‘official’ character as we can see in for example Bach’s Gavotte. The fact that those are completely build-up around quarters and quavers, creates a more stable formal dance. This movement acceleration element not being used in the Gavotte is proof that this was a tool and technique that Bach consciously used rather than it being coincidental.
In Hindemith, it can be found in various forms. We have written out accelerandi (ex 1 and ex 2), material being written in a slower rhythmic value, followed by the same or similar material in a quicker rhythmic value. Another technique he uses is shortening the motive to the quickest element and repeating that several times (ex 3). Like in Bach, there are also instances where, when we see the same section at the end as the beginning, he makes changes by adding quicker values when the section reappears (ex 4). Another approach he uses, is not necessarily making the accelerando by speeding up the quickest element but rather by playing around with the spacing in between the sequential or repeated elements (ex 1, ex 5 and ex 6).
Harmony as melody in connection to hidden counterpoint
As we learned, with the turn of the century, we saw a recurrence of melody over the harmony-heavy works of the 19th century. This went hand in hand with the resurgence and rediscovery of writing for solo strings at the beginning of the 20th century. Interesting in this, is seeing how melody and harmony get intertwined in this music and how harmony got incorporated in this resurgence of the importance of melody.
Here, I will discuss the use of harmony in function of melody in both Bach’s 18th century Suite for Cello solo as well as Hindemith’s 20th century Solo Sonata.
In Bach, an element that is of importance of distinguishing harmony and melody are the slurs. However, I feel as there is so much discussion about this as we do not have the original manuscript, that this is the performer’s responsibility to put slurs to bring out the lines as they picture the music and to enhance the big structure. This stays however an important tool in the Cello Suites.
Another interesting aspect to discuss in this section is the borders between harmony and melody in Bach’s music. During a masterclass about Bach’s music by Baroque violinist Walter Reiter, he started talking about how a lot of Bach's music for solo string instruments “lacks” melody. Try to do the following exercise, how many movements out of his sonatas and partitas for violin or out of his cello suites actually use melody as the main ingredient? The conclusion we came to was that it was very few. This, however does not mean that his music is boring or exercise-like, not even that there’s no melodic element to it at all. It just means that he rarely uses melody in the traditional sense of the word, meaning longer lines being the main leading element.
So we could say Bach’s music is very harmony-based, but when we see what succeeded him in use of harmony during the Romantic period, I become a bit hesitant to approach his music that way. I prefer looking at it as a very masterful intertwining which causes you to almost doubt where the melody stops and the harmony begins.
When touching on this aspect of music in general, we can’t go around counterpoint which is often the technique which creates the masterful interweaving of both these elements. In Bach, this also goes hand in hand with his writing in voices, so even in the Cello Suites we can see the idea of 4-voice writing, even though not every voice is written out. This creates a feeling of true bass notes or lines, in combination with alto, tenor and soprano lines.
Some movements in the Suites, play more into the voicing elements, resulting in not including chords to create the harmonic structure (like the Prelude, Courante and Gigue), while other use chords as building blocks (like the Allemande, Sarabande and Gavottes) and build their melodic ideas around it, sometimes in an even freer improvisatory way like in the Allemande.
Even Hindemith, who created his own harmonical system, still based on hierarchy of the notes, but with a very innovative approach, had strong roots in harmony while also building melody around it and intertwining both.
When discussing counterpoint, there are many hidden lines, chords and scales to be found in both these pieces, truly featuring both Bach as well as Hindemith as masters of this technique.
Hindemith makes more use of chords and double stops in his first two movements of the sonata, using those as harmonic guides with melodic fragments in between. The slow movements, however, have the harmony more hidden as they are not so chord-heavy and consist of more melodic material. The fourth movement is something else, as it has pedal tones from beginning to end, deceiving us to believe it’s a more harmonic-based movement, however as the melodic line is never really in function of the pedal tone around it, making this a true mix of melodic and harmonic ideas, clashing while intertwining.
In terms of the voicing, which is prevalent throughout the complete 6th Cello Suite, Hindemith’s use of this is more subtle. He tends to write very motivic, with question and answer hidden inside, and in many instances switching of registers, to create an effect of voicing. This is, however, alternated with passages that are either more improvisatory or have a very long build-up to a specific point.
I will show a few examples of their contrapuntal incorporation of harmony and melody underneath, showing similar approaches of both composers. (see Fig. 32-35)
Fig. 34: Hindemith ‘Breit Viertel’ – two instances of hidden chromatic scales – first one is a hidden line in the main motive which is continued through the next bar – voicing-wise it’s one voice that’s moving but it’s surrounded by other voices whose progression is not necessarily continued
Conclusions
In conclusion, when looking at the big picture of their music, it has a clear structure because of strong and relatively strict returning elements.
This deep dive in the structural enigmas of Bach and Hindemith’s music, led me to a world full of structural ideas they have in common. Their approach or incorporation might differ sometimes but it’s clear that Hindemith found much inspiration in Bach’s music. The intricate marriage between harmony and melody is one skilfully achieved by our two masters, incorporating elements from pedal tones to voicing (adding a speaking and conversational element to the music) and hidden melodic lines (often emphasizing the harmonic ideas) in their already leading line, proves that with this music there’s always more than meets the eye. Giving the performer space to show, as well as discover new ideas each time they look at the music, sometimes leaning more into the idea of continuity through the movement from beginning to end, sometimes exaggerating the magical details slightly more. The building blocks, consisting of strong rhythmical ideas, tie together all the smaller elements their music has in common. Rhythm is both composers’ mathematical base. It defines their main motivic material which returns throughout, sometimes melodically changed but very stable in its rhythmical form. It’s the motor behind all the movement acceleration and deceleration as well as driving the ideas in our ‘echoes’ and sequences. All this, making rhythm, their music its true building block. This rhythmical motor is a frame for us as performers, inside this frame we can create all the magic we want as long as the rhythmical timings add up correctly, but if we fall out of the frame by taking too much freedom, we lose the necessary speaking power needed for this music, that was given to us by the rhythm.
This chapter forms the heart of my research. Through the structural analysis I made of both Bach’s 6th Cello Suite and Hindemith’s Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1, I explore all their similarities as well as discuss their main differences in approach. By analysing their similarities in aspects such as use of compositional techniques, motivic development and voicing, my goal is to put exactly these similarities in the spotlight and highlight the developments happening throughout the movement as well as throughout the complete work. Making the similarities the framework, will give me space to give attention to the interesting differences without losing the all-important formal connection between Bach and Hindemith.
The goal of exploring our structural frame is to answer the following questions: How might highlighting these similarties influence my performance of Hindemith and Bach’s works in alternation? How will this performance connect to the audience? Which elements will be solely performance incorporated and which elements should be addressed to the audience to help their understanding?
When considering the overall structure of both works, I found it interesting to consider Bach’s prelude, or rather introduction, opening every Cello Suite to be followed by five dance movements. When remembering that Hindemith wrote the first and final movements of his solo sonata last, and the fourth movement first, I had the idea to approach the Hindemith sonata similarly to the Bach suites considering Hindemith’s first movement to be a kind of prelude to the actual core of the sonata. This also makes sense, as when thinking of a traditional sonata, it’s rather normal to have a moderately quick first movement (analogue to our second movement), a slow second movement (analogue to our third movement), and a very fast final movement (analogue to our fourth movement). This would also introduce the idea of the fifth final slow movement of the sonata being a kind of epilogue after the story has been told. In connection to Bach, our prelude in Hindemith, which I like to consider a prologue, is the first movement. This makes sense as the general feel of this movement is rather introductory, especially when looking at the second movement that follows. The general character of both the first and second movement has a similar feel and idea to it, as well as these two movements being the only ones connected by an attacca marking. Their similarity in material and its use, as well as their attacca connection make it logical to consider our first movement as a prologue to the second movement, as well as to the rest of the sonata as it’s played at the very beginning of the piece. I noticed a similar tendency of reusing or rather including material from the other movements in the final fifth movement, hence why I feel it should be considered as an epilogue to the sonata. The fifth movement has very strong motivic links to the other slow movement, the third one, strengthening the epilogue idea as it’s looking back to what came before. Considering this, I realised that only the middle three movements of the sonata have truly unique material and characters. So while this idea came to mind, making a general connection to the Bach Suites because of the introductory prelude, it introduced a novelty element in Hindemith to me in the discovery of this ‘extra’ (fifth) movement, this epilogue, calming down the excitement while looking back at the story previously told.
Naturally, it would be too obvious of a comparison with Bach if we would find five movements with dance forms and names in Hindemith’s Sonata but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some small elements hinting back to the Bach Suites. In my analysis, I’ve found that the smaller elements in form and melodic material connect these masterpieces with their different harmonic backgrounds.
Under the next subtitles I will discuss the important elements I discovered, making the connection between Bach and Hindemith more detailed with marked examples from the scores.
The Prelude has a strong motive that truly guides us through the movement as each time it reappears, it shows us the (new) tonality as well as the start of a new section. With its continuous 8ths, and in this example, G major chord going up, combined with it appearing twice, once forte and once piano, it's easy to recognise. This motive doesn’t get altered when reappearing, it only gets transposed making it extra persistent and urgent. (see Fig.2)
The next movement, ‘Sehr frisch und straff’, we reach when connecting from the first movement without break. The complete motive consists of two bars which constantly reappear throughout the movement, rhythmically almost unchanged, sometimes with two 16ths at the end instead of the 8th note, yet the first bar of the movement reappears multiple times just by itself, including versions where we see a reduction to just the last two beats of this first bar of the motive. This motive undergoes minimal changes as the rhythm remains practically untouched and the melodic material only partly gets transposed, only ever the second bar, the material in the first bar remains untouched rhythmically as well as melodically. (see Fig. 9)
When reaching the third movement of this sonata, we find our first slow movement. This movement, again, has a strong motive, when discussing simply the first bar, however, this motive undergoes many transformations. As this motivic material as well as the character of this movement fit a Sarabande, I consider this movement as this dance. The pulse remains with most importance on the second beat and the motive has its longest note on this beat as well. This motive is again rhythmically strong as the melodic material is changed into many different variations, the rhythm remains steady and without even one small change. The full three bar version reappears in many forms as well, but it’s the reappearance of the first bar that creates this movement’s skeleton. The first and second bar of the movement also return separately as well as combined throughout the movement. Rhythmically fully stable, with the melodic structure staying very flexible. (see Fig. 10)
The use of echoes and development of repeated bars
The Prelude of Bach’s 6th Cello Suite gives us a true textbook example of the use of a written out echo. Throughout the whole movement we have numerous instances when Bach writes a bar forte and repeats this exact same bar piano right after, the main motive already presenting this idea from the start of the movement. Another instance hinting back to this can be seen when Bach winks back to the Prelude in the Gigue. Throughout the rest of the Suites, there are no such obvious examples, yet the many sequences, show a similar idea, using the dynamics to put emphasis on the harmonic development, with each ‘transposed’ echo. (see Fig. 13-16)
The third movement, ‘Sehr langsam, has many echo effects throughout the movement. Here, it happens several times that the biggest part of the element is repeated but the ending is changed to already change the harmonic direction (ex 1). There are also several examples of ‘echoes’ with specific dynamic markings underneath (ex 2), never pointing that the repetition of the element should be softer, more often even signifying the opposite. Also non-consecutive echoes (ex 3), when there is repeated material close to each other but not in the next bar, are very often used here, especially with the main motive.
Hindemith’s fifth movement, ‘Langsam, mit viel Ausdruck’, barely uses ‘echoes’. Only two throughout the whole movement and in the same way as we already saw throughout the previous movements.
When looking at Bach’s use of repeated elements or ‘echoes’, as we’re discussing material that’s repeated in the exact same form, we can see that while Bach often has a more subito approach, in Hindemith we see more flexible, more gradual dynamic use of these elements. In Bach, an echo is mostly expected to be softer than the first presentation of the idea, in Hindemith, these ‘echoes’ are generally presented in a crescendo motion, making them different in that the dynamic build-up doesn’t go in steps but rather smoothly sneaks from one dynamic into the next. Also, his use of making the repetition louder, shows us another approach to these elements making them stronger and more convincing rather than a seemingly fleeting thought in Bach. What does connect between the works of the two composers, is that when they make multiple use of this in their works, it, just as the main motivic material, is extremely important for the structural skeleton of the works. As instead of long melodic lines, it almost seems as if it’s building blocks stacked together.
Pedal tones as our guide
Both Bach’s Cello Suite and Hindemith’s Solo Sonata make use of pedal tones in some movements.
This use is most obvious in Bach’s Prelude and Hindemith’s fourth sonata movement. However, in Bach we also notice some instances in his Gavotte II (b13-20 pedal tone G) and in the Gigue (b5-6 and its analogue place b37-38).
The movements which make the most similar use of their pedal tones interestingly enough never use it as a part of a double stop with the main line above it but rather always as separate notes sounding in between their melodic material.
In the Prelude we have a pedal tone showing us the tonality each time our main motive appears, in other instances we see pedal tone A from b23 to b32, pedal tone D from b70-74 and even a feeling of a pedal tone G (b100-101) when reaching G major for the last time at the end.
In Hindemith’s 'Rasendes Zeitmaß. Wild. Tonschönheit ist Nebensache.’, an almost constant buzzing of a pedal tone C is prevalent throughout this movement. The melody and even rhythmical structure is all created by this, as the movement consists of only quarters, the rhythmical structure is built around the spacing of the notes that aren’t the pedal tone and the melody is only perceived because it’s different from the pedal tone. Some changes concerning the movement inside this work are created when throughout the B section the pedal tone is changed much more often.
These pedal tones in Bach as well as in Hindemith add to the movement continuity that drives both these movements. Both movements are incredibly rhythmically stable so having pedal tones to drive sections, or in Hindemith’s case even the whole movement, makes for an interesting technique of not having an audience get hung up on small details but rather having them experience and follow the whole big structure from beginning to end along with you as you play.
Throughout my analysis I’ve marked more spots with one or more hidden lines in Bach’s Suite as well as in Hindemith’s Sonata, always marking these lines in green circles, adding purple circles when there’s a second hidden line.
Hindemith and Bach’s use of this element is very similar as they often incorporate scales or sometimes broken chords inside their already melodic frame. These elements help add to the harmonic element of their music while creating a more intricate melodic motion inside the main line. The element of adding these hidden lines in different voices makes their music more three dimensional as the different voices also create an effect of a conversation. Naturally, as their harmonic languages were adjusted to their time, Hindemith uses more chromatic motions with stronger, more obvious tensions, whereas Bach uses what we know as more traditional harmony. Yet, in many instances we can see them both strive to have their voices end up in their idea of a resolution. The voicing element is more obvious in Hindemith’s slow movements, there, we don’t necessarily find hidden lines but we can feel ourselves travelling from one voice to another when performing, experimenting with all the colours that this idea brings with it.
The Sarabande must be one of the most consistent dances through history with its specific rhythmic structure at its basis. It can be notated in a quicker time signature but the rhythmic relation of the notes to each other remains the same. Just as in the other movements, no rhythmic development or changes happen when the motive reappears, only changes to its melodic aspects. The longest note is on the second beat, giving this beat emphasis, which is one of the main characteristics of this dance. (see Fig.4)
Fig. 32: Prelude – two intertwined lines (b5-8) marked in purple and green circles – purple: descending scale and green: scale-like effect – both lines lead to the D in b8 ( purple E descends and green C# ascends)
Example 1 ‘Breit Viertel’ – triplets after the f spaced out by the main motive in between followed by a double repetition of the motive followed by the main motive shortened to just the first chord followed by the triplet material being written in the faster 16th rhythmic value (so we have written out acceleration, as well as a shortened motive in combination with Hindemith playing around with the spacing between the elements)
Example 5 out of the fourth movement – Hindemith plays around with the spacing during the closing section of the movement by going from a longer to a shorter pedal tone (Db and G) making a similar progression twice before reaching the resolution
Fig. 24: sequence Courante (between red brackets) – first four going down in chord formation (F# - D – B – G)
Fig. 21: Example of fourth movement: repeated material – followed by a shortened repeat of the material
Fig. 22: Example fourth movement: triple repetition of the same element (between the green brackets)
Fig. 19: end opening section ‘Sehr frisch und straff’: using a shortened version of the main motive repeating it in waves creating a big crescendo at the end – as if someone needed to be convinced of the idea
Fig. 30: sequence fourth movement – spaced out as seen between the red brackets – again chromatic scale moving up (E - F - F# - G)
Example 3: build-up led by repetition main motive (in bright blue box from b) also structuring the section due to its spacing - yet suddenly in G-clef instead of C-clef from the 3rd repetition
Example 6 ‘Langsam, mit viel Ausdruck’ – the sequential element (16ths) is spaced out by a C which gets shortened, making the spacing between the elements shorter as well until it disappears leaving the elements to be consecutive when reaching the ritenuto, here we also see a kind of deceleration towards the end as when we reach the highest point of the acceleration a ritenuto is written and followed by slower rhythmic values eventually winding back down to the long C in the final bar which had disappeared in our acceleration
Example of echo effect with diminuendo going hand in hand with a ritardando then followed by a sequence continuing the idea
Example 4 ‘Sehr frisch und straff’ – rhythmic values gradually increasing starting with some triplets followed by 8ths and quarter at the beginning of the crescendo in the first line, then a bar with continuous triplets, finally reaching our quickest rhythmic value the 16ths which lead us to the loudest point of the whole movement (this is part of the A’ section at the end after seeing the A section of the movement that doesn’t include any 16th notes)
Fig. 33: Prelude – b75-78 include 2 intertwined descending scales inside the complete melodic motion happening – scales highlight voicing of soprano and alto going into the tenor and bass register
Fig. 35: Hindemith ‘Sehr frisch und straff’ – two intertwined lines (first bar) hidden inside the complete idea both resolving in the next bar together creating a dissonance – tenor and soprano voice having their own lines
