Four Temperaments & Portraits of Paul Hindemith

  • More 4 T’s ballet on youtube here <> <> here and here

    Four Temperaments

    The Four Temperaments is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to music he commissioned from Paul Hindemith (the latter’s eponymous 1940 music for string orchestra and piano) for the opening program of Ballet Society, immediate forerunner of City Ballet. The première took place on Wednesday, November 20th, 1946, at the Central High School of Needle Trades, New York City

    George Balanchine – archive

  • Paul Hindemith
    (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor.

    Eearly Years (See many family photos here)

    Hindemith’s early childhood was marked by his father’s draconian style of upbringing. He brought up his children with extreme harshness, attempting to secure upward mobility for them (that had been denied him) through «colossally strict drill starting at the earliest age» and «the most precise inspection.»

    Paul Hindemith by August Sander

    Via Tate

  • Paul Hindemith and Stravinsky

    Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1961.
    Santa Fe Opera mounted Hindemith’s “News Of The Day” and Stravinsky’s “Persephone” that summer.

  • Mathias Der Maler (Opera)

  • Trauermusik (Funeral music)

    Hindemith wrote Gebrauchsmusik (Music for Use)—compositions intended to have a social or political purpose and sometimes written to be played by amateurs. The concept was inspired by Bertolt Brecht. An example of this is his Trauermusik (Funeral Music), written in January 1936. Hindemith was preparing the London premiere of Der Schwanendreher when he heard news of the death of George V. He quickly wrote this piece for solo viola and string orchestra in tribute to the late king, and the premiere was given that same evening, the day after the king’s death.[