Paul Hindemith was born 1895 in Hanau. He studied the violin and composition with Adolf Rebner, Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt/Main. He was only twenty when he was appointed as the leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra. After the end of the First World War, he returned to Frankfurt and founded the Amar Quartet in which he played the viola from 1922 to 1929. In 1923, Hindemith became a member of the organisational committee for the Donaueschingen Music Festival: it was at this festival that he gained an initial reputation following the first performance of his String Quartet Op. 16. In 1927, he was appointed as professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. His career as a composer reached a first peak at the beginning of the 1930s but with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, his works were declared as “culturally bolshevist” and disappeared from concert programmes. Hindemith undertook a number of journeys to Turkey and the USA. In 1936, a final ban was issued for the performance of his works which provoked Hindemith to emigrate, initially to Switzerland. He subsequently relocated to the USA and acquired American nationality (1946). He taught at Yale University, including the project Collegium musicum for ancient music, and also gave lectures on poetry at Harvard University (1949/50). In 1951, Hindemith took up a teaching post in Zurich and settled in Blonay on Lake Geneva. Paul Hindemith died on 28 December 1963 in Frankfurt/Main.
Paul Hindemith Composition Timpani and Percussion Requirements
Cello Concerto
Timpani + 4 percussion
Orchestral bass drum, clash cymbals, suspended cymbal, triangle, tambourine, glockenspiel, snare drum, 2 tom toms
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Kammermusik
No Timpani + 2 percussion
1) xylophone, small clash, glockenspiel, tambourine, large shaker, 2) snare drum, wood block, siren, snare drum
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Mathis Der Maler
Timpani + 5 percussion
1) clash cymbals, tambourine, 2) orchestral bass drum, 3) stage C# tubular, glockenspiel, Eb tubular bell (pit), 4) Ruhrtrommel, castanets, 5) wood block, triangle, suspended cymbal
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Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber
Timpani
Int'l 32/29/26/23 Prem 32/30/28/25
5 percussion
Tubular bells + low A, suspended cymbal, clash cymbals, orchestral bass drum, snare drum, tenor drum, glockenspiel, tom tom, gong (unpitched), triangle, tambourine, wood block
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