It is not surprising that things have developed as they have. The discovery, in the last century (XIX), of the extreme limits of power and subtlety in the effect of the musical tone extended the boundaries of the tonal domain at the disposal of the composer into hitherto undreamed-of distances. New combinatios of tones came to be recognized, and new ways of bending a melodic line were discovered. It seemed as if the sun had risen upon a new, glowing, iridescent land, into which our musician-discovers rushed headlong.
Blinded by the immense store of materials never used before, deafened by the fantastic novelty of sound, everyone seized without reflection on whatever he felt he could use.
Blinded by the immense store of materials never used before, deafened by the fantastic novelty of sound, everyone seized without reflection on whatever he felt he could use.
At this point instruction failed.
Either it fell into the same frenzy as practice, and devoted itself to flimsy speculation, instead of adapting its systems of teaching to the new material, or it lapsed into inactivity, and what had never been a very strong urge towards novelty turned into a barren clinging to the past. Confidence in enherited methods vanished; they seemed barely adequate now to guide the beginner's fisrt steps.
Whoever wished to make any progress gave himself unreservedly to the New, neither helped nor hindered by theoretical instruction, which had simply become inadequate to the occasion.
Part of the introductory chapter to the first volume of his book Unterweisung im Tonsatz ( 'The Craft of Musical Composition' ).
Isto foi sendo escrito até 1937.
Mas esta situação iria ser repetida depois de 1945.
Ou seja, antes e depois da 2ª Guerra Mundial há grandes controvérsias e mudanças na visão que se tinha da composição musical.
O mais irónico disto é que, neste texto, Paul Hindemith, compositor alemão, deu expressão, só pela consideração musical, a uma argumentada rejeição de muita da música por parte do regime degenerado dos Nazis. Mesmo que Hindemith, pessoa sem qualquer atitude ou demonstração, mesmo que em privado, de qualquer inclinação ou pensamento político ou até mesmo religioso, tenha mesmo assim sofrido, tanto à sua música como ao seu livro, críticas e discursos de uma violência aterradora e sem qualquer justificação por parte, principalmente, de Goebbels, o que levou à necessidade de uma defesa irredutível, em artigo de jornal Deutsche allgemeine Zeitung ( o último jornal liberal diário na altura ), do maestro alemão Wilhelm Furtwängler.
