In this chapter I aim to answer my research question: Which structural and harmonic elements in Bach’s music can be discovered in Hindemith’s compositions and in other early 20th century compositions for solo viola and how can these elements create a connection to help the audience understand the music better?
This question opens up a box full of new perspectives through discovering style in the 20th century, the whole evolution and background of ideas coming into existence as well as new ideas about structure. These perspectives give me a unique outlook as a performer with the unique mission of using my vision to bring my knowledge to an audience.
If we could look at Hindemith’s music through Bach’s eyes, we can establish that we fall into a similar world of strong and concise building blocks, which are often motivic and always consist of strict rhythmic patterns. They gain even more strength through direct or indirect repetition throughout the movements, making them the basis of the structural frame. When there is development of the building blocks, we see transpositions, ‘echoes’, sequences and written out accelerandi. Next to the structural elements, they also are connected in several elements related to harmony. In the use of melodic structures we see use of voicing, intertwining different melodic lines happening in different registers of the instruments, together with contrapuntal tendencies, as well as frequent use of pedal tones. Hindemith even managed to connect his use of harmony, which at the beginning of the 20th century seemed miles away from what traditional harmony used to be. This connection was created through tonal hierarchy, still maintaining the idea of a tonic which became a pitch centre and often even an semblance of a dominant being the secondary pitch centre. This ‘dominant’ in Hindemith is often a ‘true dominant’ as it’s often located a fifth above the primary pitch centre. In Bach, the harmony helps create the structure together with our building blocks, but as Hindemith maintained the hierarchy, we can see the same happening without pitch centres marking sections. Lastly, the fact that their views on music, even with their very different backgrounds, are so similar shines through. In Bach and Hindemith, you’ll never see long, singing melodies with expressive overflow, they both preferred to separate their personal feelings from their music, creating an objective distance, not meaning their music is without personality, it simply showed emotional restraint, not letting every inch of personal emotion shine through. Even though this objectivity in Hindemith was a result of him going against the Romanticism, he did not completely steer away, as the Romantic ideals concerning sound production are still prevalent throughout his works. Although Hindemith opened up the spectrum of colour of sound by not having beautiful sound be the only possible tool and sound could be adjusted to be less resonant or ‘unhealthy’ sounding to serve the music’s atmosphere.
When discussing other valuable influences on Hindemith throughout his life, we see Reger and Stravinsky, from which he took an example in their use of early music in modern times, again helping his Neoclassical style, Another influence on Hindemith was Bartok and folk tunes, not connecting to our Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1 but very prevalent in many of his other compositions, such as the 1919 Sonata for Viola and Piano or the Schwanendreher Concerto. Hindemith’s harmony was a product of its time, further developing already existing ideas in a personal way, filled with increasing chromaticism (coming from Wagner), searching for new ways to approach music. It’s also what created the strongest developments and differences between his common elements with Bach. The use of tension of his harmony sometimes asked for necessary adjustments, as visible in echoes, bars that insist through repetition and Bach’s general accelerating rhythm towards the end of the movements turning into very concise written out accelerandi structures.
To conclude, I will discuss a few thoughts and questions which came to mind when reflecting on my research question as a violist, artist and performer.
An important similarity between the music of Bach and Hindemith is their mathematically based, almost rigid rhythmic frame, with its many motives and repeated elements. This strong skeleton as well as their objective view on music does pose the question: how do we approach freedom of expression and interpretation inside this frame?
In Bach, this can be considered our only obstacle, whereas Hindemith composed in a time when under the influence of Reger detailed markings of expressive elements, such as dynamics, articulations, agogic, tempo changes and character changes, had emerged as an important part of the text. This leaving us to the question, isn’t it what’s in between the notes that creates the music? In my opinion, the most respectful to the text, yet still personal way to approach the rhythmical frame and detailed markings of expressive elements, is timing. Timing is a very valuable aspect of music, which can add a lot of personality, especially in Bach and Hindemith which otherwise might leave little space. The use of this aspect in Bach and Hindemith’s music, I will approach in close connection to their harmonic progressions, spacing things out or closer together based on the level of tension and the resolutions or returns to pitch centres. It's also connected to their written out ‘breaks’ on the resolutions or simply moments that they put time to a standstill with a long note right in between. This is very present in the Sarabande movement and as a performer my aim is to create this moment of a standstill and have the audience experience it as a moment when everything stops, even their thoughts. Important to note is that timing is not solely an idea that I invented in this context, but in Hindemith’s case we have recordings of the composer himself playing the Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1 in 1934. This recording illustrates the big freedom in timing Hindemith allowed himself within the seemingly extreme and rigid existing structure. Other aspects that can contribute to our expressive strength are tone colour and vibrato. In Bach, I will again connect strongly connect this to the harmonic progressions, in Hindemith as there are many different characters to be found within the movements (especially the slow movements), tone colour can open up a whole world of emotion and the story line hidden inside the movement. Practically this means playing around with different vibrati, the spectrum from open to closed sound, non-vibrato, the way the bow touches the string as well as the speed of the bow and where on the string I play to create sound.
The next question which came to mind was: How can I as a performer incorporate my findings of similarities as well as different approaches in Bach and Hindemith’s music to strengthen and clarify my interpretation? I discussed a detailed practical approach of this in the chapter ‘From research to the stage’. To summarise this, means to keep close to the structural frame, emphasising it through all the common structural elements between Bach and Hindemith and strengthening it by awareness of the harmonic build-up and tonal hierarchy supporting it. The characters of the structure are sketched by all aspects concerning sound production and quality. To visibly strengthen the ideas even more, body language can enlarge the structure we are communicating, by facial expressions as well as sudden stops, seen in abrupt stopping of a movement, or calmness when music comes to a standstill.
Lastly: Which elements and findings need to be highlighted to have the audience gain a deeper understanding of the repertoire and how to approach bringing it to the audience as a performer? As my main goal remains to bring Hindemith’s early 20th century repertoire, which by some people can be perceived as ‘scary’, ‘intimidating or ‘too difficult’, closer to the audience by making the connection to Bach.
All of the elements discussed in my previous question should be of value to clarify my interpretation for the untrained ears as well as trained ears of 20th century repertoire. The clearer picture of the music I have gained will also add to this. To be more specific, I will focus on a few, as to not make it overly complicated, of the most comprehensible as well as easily audible elements. The use of echoes and repetitions of main motivic material, movement acceleration, standstill points and voicing could easily be put into simple metaphors tied together by a storyline of an almost everyday situation in a person’s life, such as train stations and walking through a city (another example in the video recordings of Bach's 'Sarabande' and Hindemith's 'Sehr langsam' next to this text with their accompanying metaphors). This story is simply meant to help people connect to the music from beginning to end, it’s by no means supposed to dictate anyone's experience or imagination, which is why I aim to keep it as vague, simple and familiar as possible. Its only goal is to direct the ears of the audience to what they need to hear to keep track of the structure and not drown in the modernness of it all. I believe that when they can follow the build-up of the piece, they have a guide which creates understanding. I illustrate this in connection to Bach, using my analysis comparison, as he is one of the most beloved classical composers by all audiences, as when they experience the story (of Hindemith) through Bach and are able to experience both slightly different stories within the same setting, people will realise that this music written 200 years apart is not so different after all.
IV. Sarabande of Cello Suite No.6 - J.S. Bach
We’re walking through a still sleeping city, no haste. This time, we’re following a route through the main streets guiding us past the big sights, our heart flutters with excitement when walking from one sight to the next. The music moves slightly forward when walking there and comes to a stop, just like with Hindemith’s hidden gems, when we reach a sight and are completely engrossed by it. A musical arrival point and an harmonical resolution before heading onto our next location. With each stop, feels as if we’re praying to the angels to thank them for the beauty surrounding us.
Fragment of II. Sehr frisch und straff: 2:00-2:40
Showcases Hindemith's freedom inside a stricter rhythmic frame, highlighting the voicing through prolonging important notes, fluctuating tempo
Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1 (III. Sehr langsam) - Paul Hindemith
In Hindemith’s Sarabande, titled ‘Sehr langsam’, we explore our city strolling through the small mysterious streets while looking around full of wonder discovering all the hidden gems around. We take in all impressions, every small detail, with each hidden gem marking a musical arrival point, time coming to a standstill on a seemingly endless note. While discovering and experiencing all magical, simple details, the music is calm in complete inner peace. The curiosity that comes with exploring hidden beauty, hikes up our heart rate. The music moves forward and the volume gradually increases to then return to our inner peace, another endless long note. This calmness is interrupted by the city waking up, streets getting busy, people hustling and bustling all around. The music gets louder, more insistent, repeating our opening rhythm in the same form guiding us through the masses with an inner disquiet, getting broader and more suffocating. We reach the sides of the city, the masses thinning out, a hiking trail to an outlook point reveals itself, while we distance ourselves even more from the life of the city. Our heart rate goes up hiking up the steep hill. Everything comes to a stop when our eyes spot the view for the first time, our first musical arrival point. The silence mixes with the sounds of nature, our second musical arrival point. We take in the seemingly endless view in complete inner peace, as if overlooking the whole world, followed by our arrival point repeating for the third and final time. Time loses all importance, a feeling of endlessness overcomes us, while a long note distances itself from us until there’s nothing left.
