Black Holes and Snowy Mountains

Paul Hindemith emigrated to the United States in 1940 (having previously departed from Germany to Switzerland in September 1938) and began to discuss a ballet with music based on themes of Carl Maria von Weber’s. The ballet project did not succeed due to differences over the set and the variations themselves, but Hindemith kept the music and released them as Symphonic Metamorphoses.

Premiered on January 20, 1944 in New York, Symphonic Metamorphoses is a grand showcase for the modern orchestra and for Hindemith’s unique compositional style. Instrumental voices come and go seemingly at random, but the music never loses its sense of cohesiveness.

 I. Allegro

The duet of Weber’s on which this movement is based is marked “Al’Ongarese”- Hungarian- and the movement clearly is evocative of Eastern Europe. The movement opens with a fast-paced march in the low brass, strings, and timpani. It is quickly interrupted by a sudden descending “Gypsy scale” in the high strings, after which the section is repeated. A brief interlude ensues with several intertwining passages between the strings and winds before the heavy, powerful theme two in the low strings and clarinets is played twice through, taken up by the upper strings the second time. The brass highlight theme three, again played twice, before the orchestra catches its breath with a jaunty oboe solo against pizzicato strings and flute flourishes. The flutes and glockenspiel play a momentary duet before the oboe returns. The contrabassoon and clarinet converse with the oboe before theme one returns in the orchestra, punctuated with unusual rhythmic figures in the brass. The march ends in a frenzy, capped with a 3-note rhythm in orchestral unison before the final chord.

II. Scherzo- Turandot

The scherzo is a series of variations on a single “Chinese” theme first played by a solo flute. The theme is repeated throughout the orchestra time after time with numerous combinations of instruments, gradually building in dynamic much like Ravel’s Bolero. For more than 3 and a half minutes the excitement builds before the orchestra can no longer contain itself and quiet audibly explodes and decrescendos in a very “Flight of the Bumblebee”-like passage in the strings. The brass then introduces the second theme (which is actually just a syncopated version of the first theme), in turn echoed by various other instruments including a solo timpani- finally being given its due with a melodic passage. This second theme is interrupted by a return of the first theme in the timpani accompanied by section percussion instruments and then repeated throughout the orchestra led by the low strings. The movement ends with the timpani repeating theme one accompanied by a church-bell like line in the tubular bells along with section percussion in a steady decrescendo that ends on a brass chord.

III. Andantino

A lone clarinet against a background of buzzing strings begins the movement, and is soon answered by the bassoon. They both repeat the theme once before the melody resolves into a beautifully calm string passage. Following the same pattern as the clarinet and bassoon, the low and high voices in the string section repeat each other before the orchestra interjects for a moment and takes over the string melody in the winds. About three minutes into the piece the hellaciously difficult flute solo begins against the backdrop of the orchestra repeating the theme. The effect is actually a lot like the piccolo solo in “The Stars and Stripes Forever”… except in a minor key and significantly slower. The movement ends as quietly as it began, setting the audience up for the blast of sound that begins the final fourth movement march.

IV. Marsch

The fourth movement begins with a marshal-sounding brass fanfare before a military-like theme accompanied by bouncing, staccato notes in the strings starts in the winds. After repeating this theme once again in the winds and again in the strings, a fluttering wave of woodwinds serves as a cover for a triumphant, joyous theme rising from the brass. This second theme is repeated in various sections of the orchestra, with each repetition concluding with sixteenth note triplets in the timpani. A brief switch back to a minor key signals the return of theme one in the brass, but theme two soon overpowers it to end the movement in a loud, festive celebration with a sixteenth triplet flourish to conclude the movement.

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Paul Hindemith’s Metamorphoses indeed go beyond the simpler-meaning “Variations” on a theme. The work demands high levels of virtuosity from its soloists and due to the sheer number of unusual rhythmic passages, even professional orchestras can struggle with its music. The effect, however, is brilliant- an intricate tapestry of sound gets woven together, each element remaining in its place as part of the whole but still grabbing your attention whenever it gets the chance.

If you are interested in listening to a recording, I recommend herbert Blomstedt’s 1990 recording with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on Decca. You can buy this recording by clicking on the image below. Unfortunately this recording is not available in the iTunes Music Store, so as an alternative I recommend Blomstedt’s recording with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, also on Decca.

This article is part of the Music 365 series. To find out more about this project, please visit the project homepage.