Aegis 2012 enjoyed coaching some of the amateur groups he played and worked with.6 While in the army, Hindemith continued his life as an amateur composer, though it certainly lessened his output. It is possible, however, that he developed a distaste for the military when his father died on the front lines in 1917.7 By the end of his service in the war, however, he had grown sick of the army and was happy in 1919 to return home to his mother.8 After returning from the war, Hindemith continued his career as a performer, but switched to viola. Also, with the encouragement of close friends and family, he decided it was time to explore life as a composer. In 1919, Hindemith submitted his works to Schott und Söhne Publishing, which happened to be looking for new material as their copyright on Richard Wagner’s works had just run out. Thus began a long connection to Schott und Söhne Publishing (now Schott Music) which, even to this day, still holds the rights to almost all of Hindemith’s published compositions.9 As his collection of compositions increased, Hindemith began to develop a unique style that combined modernism and neo-classicism. As the Weimar Republic collapsed and the Nazi Regime began a sterilization of German culture, Hindemith and his musical compositions fell under the scrutiny of the KFDK, a committee on music propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels.10 Originally, the KFDK was formed as an effort to standardize music education across the country, but instead became a breeding ground for German musical propaganda.11 Fortunately, Goebbels was for the most part keen on Hindemith and his music due to Hindemith’s popularity as a leading German composer. Hindemith was seen as “the next Wagner,” a composer who was looked upon by the regime as a pillar of German culture. Nonetheless, the presence of a wider scrutiny caused Paul Hindemith to begin to censor and alter his compositions rather than write in his own true voice. Soon enough, however, he became frustrated with his limited compositional freedom and gradually returned to his unrestrained style.12 In 1936, after it started to become clear that Hindemith was not a supporter of the Nazi regime, Hindemith’s music was banned in Nazi Germany and labeled as bolshevist (essentially, un-German). In response to a letter condemning his earlier music as bolshevist, Hindemith wrote that: It concerned only educational matters, but I got the impression (after I had satisfied them that I was neither a half nor any other fractional Jew) that they have a good opinion of me there. Since then they have commissioned me (though not quite officially) to work out plans for a new system of teaching composition and music theory.13 Hindemith finally became fed up with the fact that he could not compose freely. In 1938, Hindemith moved to Switzerland to escape the Nazi regime. This caused the Nazis to show their point as proven by showcasing Hindemith’s music in an exhibition of “degenerate music.” Less than a year later, the Nazis invaded Poland. Only two months later, Paul Hindemith finished his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (November, 1939).14 This sonata was one of a series of works being composed for each major, and many minor, instruments. Finally, in 1940, Paul Hindemith moved to the United States of America and continued his career as a composer, conductor, and teacher. Finally broken completely free of any Nazi power and in a country where his works were slowly becoming famous, Hindemith had complete compositional freedom. His fame, which was already flourishing in the United States from his internationally acclaimed works written in German, grew to new heights as Hindemith delivered a series of lectures at Harvard University in 1950 which were soon compiled into a book and published by Harvard University Press as A Composer’s World:
55
