Product Description
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

hindemith
Elementary Training is great for any musician. Applicable to anything you might be doing musically. I love this book

Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contra
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician.

Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contra
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician.

Amazing
I am in the 9th chapter as i am writing the review and i must tell it is a must read for anyone who aspires to be a 'Musician'. No wonder musicians during and before Hindemith lived were conisdered as artists unlike today's overtly commercial, artificial, completely lacking in talent 'sound makers'. I would particularly recommend this for teachers as it is a wonderful tool for teaching the intricacies of music(though this is only Elementary Training).

A solid activity approach to learning the basics skills of music and theory
Paul Hindemith should have a more prominent place in the minds and repertoire of musicians.However, he was also a music professor at Yale during and after the war.He returned to Europe in 1953 and taught at a university in Zürich.As a pedagogue and even as a theorist, he was very interested in the practical applications of music.He saw absolutely no use of learning abstractions from a book that you lacked the ability to apply.Makes sense, doesn't it?

This book provides activities at a basic level.He is correct that if you can learn and do all of the activities in this book, you will inevitably get a solid grounding in basic theory.You will not only learn about rhythm, pitch, and notation, you will also learn to write down what you hear (an ability called dictation).

The material here is fairly easy for a well trained musician, but very difficult for a beginner, and probably impossible for a beginner without a good teacher.The main thing to note is that this is a very activity oriented approach and was put together by a fine musician who was an important composer, theorist, and teacher. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician. Introductory * The Medium * The Nature of the Building Stones * Harmony * Melody * Analyses ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A must have
Very good theory, for serious composers. I have the second part too. It's not an easy book and you may find it boring (it's time consuming). But I'm sure you'll find it at least interesting. Try it.

My favorite book on composition
I'm a largely self-taught musician. I did take guitar lessons (from a guy who could tell what chord you were playing by ear, but had no idea what notes went into them - no theory background whatsoever), and composition/ear training lessons from a classically trained composer who got his master's at Julliard. Still, a large part of my musical education was self taught. I read a lot of books, mostly old old dusty tomes that I was lucky enough to find in reprinted editions, and rarely if ever stuff that would be considered a textbook for a classroom.

My composition teacher introduced me to Hindemith, but in his Elementary Training for Musicians and Traditional Harmony books - both of which I diligently did the exercises in every week.

This is by far my favorite book on the subject of composition. While there's plenty that I've learned that isn't in this book, there's so much material in here that really strikes at the heart of harmony, that it's hard not to love it... or leave it, as the case may be - a few reviewers here seem to regard it as more of a cultural oddity than a book that shines a light on the dark places. Perhaps these reviewers have had the benefit of a traditional musical education & have spent years with far thicker tomes, such as Piston's perennial classroom favorites.

He begins (as did many theory books up until Hindemith's era) with an overview of the overtone series & the creation of the major scale. He goes one step beyond that, and through a series of convolutions, constructs a 12 tone scale that he derives from the overtone series (Rameau would be proud). I see the merit in this, but it seems largely academic to me. Either you'll use equal temperament in atonal composition, or you'll compose in a largely diatonic manner. Still, I applaud his effort to marry the old tonal tradition with the emerging atonal compositions that were becoming more prominent in his time. Few of us today are concerned with the precise place we need to put our fingers on the fretboard to get a properly intonated minor second, but in his day when composers were transitioning away from purely tonal music, but were not embracing equal temperament, this would have been an issue.

It's worth noting that Hindemthi hated equal temperament & is glad that he doesn't believe it will take over music any time soon... published in 1942, two years after Les Paul built his first electric guitar, and less than a decade away from Leo Fender transforming the world with inexpensive, mass produced electric guitars, transforming the popular music world into one of equal temperament seemingly overnight. I find this both sad (because I suffered for many years as a musician because of the equal temperament music I grew up on was not a harmonically pure enough one for me to develop a good ear early on), and ironic, since he was on the cusp of a revolution & didn't know it.

When he's done constructing the scale, he uses combination tones as a justification for the way chords are constructed - that is, if you have 3 notes, how can you definitively say one is the root? Even when in inversion, why is that note the root? To those of you who know nothing of the overtone series and think of chords as "stacked thirds" - I ask you - why is the root note the root? Why can you have another note in the bass, yet it's still not the root? How can you add a 7th and a 9th so that your chord has 5 notes (5 out of a possible 7 notes in the major scale), and then invert it, and still know which note is the root? Hindemith explains.

From there, he places the intervals on a continuum from more harmonic to more melodic. I don't think his groupings are well accepted dogma (nor any of the things I'm talking about), but it makes good, strong, logical sense. If you play a succession of tones, why does playing 3rds and 5ths sound like you're arpeggiating a chord, but playing seconds sounds like melody? Again, Hindemith explains.

Building on the above, he then breaks chords into different groupings. This may be less controversial, but his method is logical. These groupings make up the entirety of the two page appendix (unless you count his section on analysis of musical samples as part of the appendix too), so you can be sure that Hindemith believed these groupings were important for you to have on reference (though it's fairly easy to remember the groupings - simple triads, 7th & 9th chorsd, chords without a tritone, etc.).

This takes up roughly the first half of the book, and lays the foundation for the second half - Hindemith's rules of Harmony. This bit is somewhat more detailed & technical, and I found it to be less "full of insights" than the first half, and more "full of rules" - which is what a great many harmony books are, so this section was a bit less valuable to me.... I say this after having read the book a year or so ago, so mostly I'm saying this because I remember fewer of the thing he said in this section, I may have been rapt in attention during this section a year ago, I just don't remember it so well now.

There's also a brief section on Melody. Very few music theory books tackle melody, and Hindemith does, which is very laudable. I don't know that he adds much of significance here, but it's certainly worth going through this section, since so few treatments of melody exist.

Finally, we have the aforementioned analysis of musical works, and the chart of various chord types.

I found it to be quite an enjoyable read. Very concise and with little fluff, and for the most part, lite on "rule" and heavy on "insights into why thing work" - which is the sort of stuff I live for.

If you want more "rules on classical harmony" Tchaikovsky's book is slender and hard to beat. If you're really just looking for "music theory for dummies" Edly's Music Theory for Busy People (available on the publisher's website) is very simple & concise, though the first few pages may be difficult for an absolute beginner. Writing Music for Hit Songs is also a great introduction to music theory (and from a pop music, not classical) standpoint, and I would recommend it to absolute beginners.

Not a course for freshman and sophomore music theory, but an important document by an important composer
This is a very interesting document by an important composer of the twentieth century.It provides his views on an approach to music that goes beyond the traditional theory of music through the common practice period.He goes into some theories on intervals, acoustics, and much more.This is NOT a book that will give you a grounding in the kind of music theory (actually music grammar education) that is given to freshman and sophomores at music schools.

As some of my fellow theory students noted, this is a great method to learn to compose like Hindemith, but who wants to do that anymore?Well, we want to learn more about him and his music, and this remains one of his principle statement of his musical approach.This is not for beginners and will likely be opaque to the general reader.

most useful if you're a tonal/expanded tonal composer.
Hindemith lays out his theoretical understanding of how music works and attempts to give musicians a basic starting point for composition that isn't limited to traditional tonal music (i.e. pre-Wagner and Debussy). His series 1 and 2 are contested to this day but they don't form the heart of the book, which is a broader, philosophical exposition of how composer's should think about music and approach it on a day-to-day basis. He argues that all music is tonal but it doesn't have to be major or minor.

I still don't buy the chord-reckoning method and Hindemith never reconciled himself the fact that his method can include jazz and pop--but this book is still one of the best books about composition I've read. Hindemith is probably the biggest exponent of the neo-classical school besides Stravinsky (others are Prokofiev and, to some degree, Bartok). This book goes a long way to explaining that perspective. Even if you play rock music you can still get a lot out of this book. Although he put down most of it Hindemith did like some jazz (Ellington and Andrew Hill, who studied with him some).

For a less technical exposition of Hindemith's ideas you may want to check out A Composer's World, which covers a lot of the same stuff.

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Product Description
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remakable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost every kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician. Preface * Construction of the Simplest One-Voice Melodic Patterns * Beginning of Two-Voice Setting * Elaborated Melody (Auxiliary or Teturning Tones, Passing Tones) * Elaborated Melody (Continuation) * Principles of Melodic Construction * Elaborated Melody (Conclusion) * Tonal Higher-Units * Tonality of the Melodies * Elaboration of the Melody Model * Free Two-Voice Setting I and II ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Read it if you want to be a composer
Read it if you want to be a composer. I mean it. Hindemith did a great job with this book (you should buy the first volume too). I will not tell you what you'll find in this book, experience your self. Read and learn.

Practical exercises meant to develop compositional skills rather than simply theory exercises
This book is the practical application of the principles Hindemith discusses in his theoretical volume of the "Craft of Musical Composition".There fifty-six exercises, two hundred and fifty-one musical examples and sixty-two rules for composition in this small volume.It is meant to be used by students with a skilled teacher who is also an able composer.The approach is intensely practical and is meant to build skill in actually writing music rather than empty exercises to demonstrate this or that rule.

Again, the methodology here is based on Hindemith's ideas of composition and theory.Do not expect to be writing exercises in the style of Palestrina, Bach, or Mozart.There are charts and explanations here that will be opaque without having a grounding in the theoretical volume of his "Craft of Musical Composition".You could do much worse than studying these two volumes, but you do have to make a judgment about whether the juice is worth the squeeze. ... Read more

Product Description
The book aims to be a guide through the little universe which is the workingplace of the man who writes music. As such it talks predominantly to the layman,although the expert composer may also find some stimulation in it... From the center of basic theory the discussion will spread out into all the realms ofexperience which border the technical aspects of composing, such as aesthetics, sociology, philosophy, and so on. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

cranky at times but a solid read
The literary style is a bit dry but the rhetoric and ideas are a solid read. Hindemith opens with a philosophical discussion of the nature of hearing and performing music and lays down the poles of Western thought between Boethius and Augustine, that music is considered to have moral force to shape the mind or that the mind imposes order on sound to create the mental impression of music. He tries to avoid being dogmatic about either and proceeds to an explanation of musical memory and emotional association.

Where he gets a bit cranky is explaining the American musical education establishment and the bad habits of performers. He's also very unforgiving to popular music and music made in totalitarian states (e.g. Shostakovich and music written for fascist regimes). But his comments about the shortcomings of American musical education are salient today and his critique of mass-marketing of music is also still relevant. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in the 1940s, Paul Hindemith's remarkable textbooks are still the outstanding works of their kind. In contrast to many musical textbooks written by academic musicians, these were produced by a man who could play every instrument of the orchestra, could compose a satisfying piece for almost any kind of ensemble, and who was one of the most stimulating teachers of his day. It is therefore not surprising that nearly forty years later these books should remain essential reading for the student and the professional musician. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

While not as complete as modern theory texts, it is interesting because Hindemith wrote it
This small volume contains a condensed approach to a harmonic view of tonal music.It focuses nearly all of its attention on labeling chords and their inversions.There is nothing on counterpoint and voice leading that would be part of a contemporary music education.However, it does have practical exercises and they can be useful for a student in the hands of a good teacher.

Over the decades since its publication this has been a very popular book and many have gained a great deal from it, but there are nowadays better and more complete texts on the market.However, this was written by an important composer and is therefore interesting beyond a purely pedagogical purpose.

Like No Other
In this rather amazing little book, Hindemith takes the reader through all the phases of "modern" tonality with the absolute minimum of text and copious exercises. On one hand, the minimum amount of text means that all but the most exceptional student would, at certain points, require further explanation. That said, there is a tremendous amount of information in what little Hindemith does say. Likewise, for the careful observer, the exercises themselves reveal a huge part of the grammar of tonal music. There is not a dud "academic" exercise in the whole book.

Another reviewer mentions Walter Piston's fine Harmony book. Rightly, the Piston book contains page after page of well-done categorization of the syntax of tonal music and beyond. However, as it points out virtually everything, it is hard for a student to understand what is truly important and what is merely being overexplained or overanalyzed. Likewise, the fairly small amount of exercises - many very average - often cannot reveal what has been so carefully explained in the text; make no mistake, when you study music what you learn gets into your head by working with actual music - very little comes in from reading alone. Hindemith's book is a cure for this, as it gets you writing, and writing a lot. It gives you the chance to grow your own syntax.

In my opinion, the Piston book actually makes a good companion to the Hindemith book, though I think both are best used along with a knowledgeable teacher. If, as a student, you are someone who craves "getting down to business" and doing careful, thoughtful work - the Hindemith book will be an excellent guide.

Compact but Amazing!
In this book Hindemith first refers to the core of the classical harmony (I, IV, V chords) and then expands them to the a whole body of amazing possibilities (chord inversions, dominant chord, alteration, modulation , ...). The approach is very interesting and practical and the book provides lots of exercises for hard working readers. Hindemith showed me the right approach to the harmony without memorizing the rules and a way to writing harmony with the minimum material! It is of course for patient and hard working people and you have to feel comfortable with the basic theory to enjoy this book. It is a shame that the book has been out of print for such a long time!

This Text is only for Advanced Studies
I strongly believe that this book could easily create misunderstandings to a student of Harmony. i found this book almost chaotic when I studied it asa Harmony sudent. In comparison to Walter Piston's Harmony this book hasnot a straight and organised method of teaching and I only recommend it foradvanced students.

The classic, the best
Lots of exercises for the budding composer.Those who wish to write the great art music of the 21st century should try to get a copy.By the end of the book, all the classic rules of harmony are repealed, because one haslearned when to break them, and when to follow. ... Read more

Product Description
"Noss has thoroughly documented Hindemith's Yale period (1940-53)...The extensively quoted correspondence shows the witty and vividly humorous side of Hindemith's personality as he tries to adjust to musical standards of life in America." - Howard Boatwright, pupil of Paul Hindemith, Professor Emeritus and former dean, Syracuse University. ... Read more

Product Description
In the disastrous years before and during the Second World War, when confidence in a harmonious future was as difficult as it was crucial for spiritual survival, two German artists in exile wrote what would become their late masterpieces. The composer Paul Hindemith conceived an opera on the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler s mature life and theories, The Harmony of the World; the poet and novelist Hermann Hesse wrote a complex literary collage, The Glass Bead Game. Both works address the topic of universal harmony in the fabric of creation and culture, as well as the urgent problem of how such harmony can heal the spiritual, mental, and emotional developments of individuals and of society at large. The two quests are mirrored into circumstances that are almost equidistant from the mid-20th-century period in which their stories are being told Hindemith s opera centers on an outstanding intellectual in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, while Hesse s work focuses on this intellectual s counterpart projected into a fictional world of the early 23rd century. In both cases, the quest for harmony and truthful proportion manifests at all levels of the stories told and of the works telling them. Siglind Bruhn s thought-provoking interdisciplinary study is organized along the lines of the seven areas in which scholars of the Pythagorean tradition from Plato to Kepler and beyond found universal harmony paradigmatically realized music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the quadrivium of the medieval liberal arts) complemented by metaphysics, psychology, and art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A contemplative discussion of the connections between music study, world cultures, and cosmology
Musicologist, concert pianist, and interdisciplinary scholar Siglind Bruhn presents The Musical Order Of The World: Kepler, Hesse, Hindemith, a contemplative discussion of the connections between music study, world cultures, and cosmology, particularly as researched by great scientific minds. Covering topics from "Music's Moral Power in Ancient China and Hesse's Castalia" to "The Eternal Realm of Numerical Relations", to an extremely close reading of Kepler's poetry concerning the meaning of death. The Musical Order Of The World is a thoughtful and perfectly attuned blend of advanced music study, ground-breaking scholarship, and metaphysical awareness.
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Product Description
This selection of letters by Paul Hindemith-the first such anthology to appear in English-fills out our portrait of the internationally acclaimed composer, performer, festival organizer, teacher, lecturer, and writer, and provides an absorbing chronicle of his life and times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

not very revealing and not super interesting
One of my teachers told me that letters by famous people are usually very dull. Sad to say this seems to be the case here.

Skelton wrote a book on Hindemith and while that's great these selected letters seem to be missing a lot, a possibility suggested when Skelton says he didn't include material he considered of too personal a nature. I don't know if the Hindemith institute asked this or not but excerpts of some of the most interesting letters are missing, particularly the "moral conquest" letter he sent enclosed with Ludus Tonalis (which you can get in the Urtext edition); there he wrote scathing remarks about the Leningrad symphony and the American policy of promoting Russian music over German or italian music during the war years. The read is so dry I haven't even finished it yet and I get the strong sense that you wouldn't learn much more from this book than Skelton's earlier book. I've read A Composer's World and other books by Hindemith and can't shake the suspicion that Hindemith's letters were dull or, at least as likely, Skelton and co. wouldn't let us see the most readable parts. ... Read more