Customer Reviews (8)

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.

Practical and Concise
This is by far the best book on its subject that I've ever worked with.For some reason it wasn't used until the second year second semester of Ear Training where I went to school, and I wonder why the college made us waste time and money on previous texts when this one had it all.

That being said, it's definitely written without self-teaching in mind.From Hindemith's mindset, and that of many pedagogues both living and deceased, the idea of teaching oneself musicianship is about as nuts as teaching oneself surgery or carpentry.Even if it were possible, the same results could be achieved with less time and effort through proper instruction, which Hindemith sought to facilitate with this text.So if you're looking for a self-teaching text, look elsewhere - you are outside the scope of this book.

My only concern about this book, and this could be simply the edition I have, is that it's in desperate need of a facelift.Taking advantage of computer layout techniques could make the exercises easier to read and the pages easier to navigate.Other than that, it's a teacher's dream for working on the nuts and bolts of musicianship.

"Elementary Training" -- Neither Elementary Nor Musical
I first encountered "Elementary Training for Musicians" when I was a teenager, several decades ago. It was recommended by a couple of professional musicians whom I admired as role models. They must have had a grudge against me. I approached the book with an open and eager mind, as if it were the Bible, and by the fifth page it had absolutely dashed my hopes and dreams. This book would have represented a major setback for me, had I not had the courage to say, "Hindemith, you're full of [it]," and moved on with my life.

As I got to know my musician friends better, I could see that what made them good had little to do with the torturous training in this turgid tome. I suspect that the same is true of Hindemith, who probably wrote his music with his right brain, and wrote this book with his left. I think he secretly penned this particular monument to obtuseness to dumbfound his professor peers, as if to say, "You see? This is what is 'elementary' to a genius like me."

You probably won't take to this book unless you happen to have perfect pitch and an appetite for unmusical exercises. Even if the latter description fits you, you would probably find the layout boring and confusing, a relic from the pre-War era, when pools of type swam in undifferentiated masses on the page. In this case, the pools are notes. The type enshrines an authorial voice that is professorial and pedantic. There is little sympathy on Hindemith's part for the "beginner's mind" -- yours, presumably -- so if you are really a beginner at music, seek your elementary training elsewhere. I would suggest going to the bookstore of a major university and seeing what is available now in music fundamentals. Avoid all texts that do not have at least one accompanying CD. Why be cruel to yourself? Your progress will be easier and faster if you can hear what the symbols mean.

One other recommendation:David Lucas Burge's Relative Pitch Ear Training Course (I have no financial interest in Burge's courses). Burge seems to be a bit of a showman, but this course is indeed meticulously worked out. I think there are some drawbacks to it, but it is truly Elementary Training for Musicians, and it will serve you well for a lifetime. As for his Perfect Pitch course, there may be something to it, but I haven't seen (or heard) any confirmation.

Good luck!

EXCELLENT BOOK
Paul Hindemith is probaly the greatest teacher, composer, and author of the 20th Century. This Book gives insight to many students (such as myself). It is a great source of help for music theory and composition, history and literature majors. Buy the Book and I gurantee you will not regret it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EXCELLENT BOOK
Paul Hindemith is probaly the greatest teacher, composer, and author of the 20th Century. This Book gives insight to many students (such as myself). It is a great source of help for music theory and composition, history and literature majors. Buy the Book and I gurantee you will not regret it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Read more

Book 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 (6)

YIKES!
Picture yourself finding some old schematics for and ancient transistor radio. You open it to find those wierd old pictures of wires and transistors with meaningless letters on them like A or Y, then you read the text and the meaningless words flow in and out. You say to yourself, this looks like something I will never need in my life. If this sounds like a ball of fun to you, then buy this book and party up! If not then pass this one up. In fact, run screaming. This book will not show you what modern composers use to make their music. It will not show you why Milhaud, Honegger, Stravinsky, and others sound so great. It does not show you any craft of musical composition.

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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MUST read for any serious composer, BUT still lacking...
This is an excellent book.It is a MUST-READ for any serious composer...however, it reflects a rather narrow-minded viewpoint.In order to get the true meaning out of this book, one needs to take all thetheoretical knowledge and apply it in a more open-minded manner.For manythough, this book will provide a very different, and useful way of lookingat music and harmony. ... Read more

Book 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 (1)

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

Book 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

Book 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

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

Book Description

Product Description
Edition Schott 2522 AP ... Read more

Product Description
Paul Hindemith is one if the most important composers of the 20th century. This elaborately designed multimedia CD-ROM gives full insight into the fascinating story of his life and work against the background of the contemporary context. Apart from historical audio and film material, the user has access to about 1,000 photos and drawings of the veratile composer, sketches and scores, letters, manuscripts as well as numerous musical examples and high quality recordings of his works. Also includes historical film clips, 120 minutes of musical and spoken documents, list of works, bibliography, index of subjects and people, discography and comprehensive text section in English and German. This CD was awarded the DIGITA 98 (German Educational Software Award)! ... Read more

Book Description
Paul Hindemith never accepted the complete engagement with social issues suggested in the writings of Brecht, but he developed many of his ideas regarding the place of an artist in the thirties and forties, his music eventually gaining official disapproval. His strong opinions about musical composition make him a particularly interesting subject and this research guide will provide a complete bibliography of works to guide the scholar and student. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 2004. The length of the article is 305 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Paul Hindemith.(Sound Recording Reviews)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Author: Rick Anderson
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2004
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 60Issue: 4Page: 1014(2)

Article Type: Brief Article, Sound Recording Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1997. The length of the article is 708 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith.
Author: David Neumeyer
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1997
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v53Issue: n4Page: p1166(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more