Paul Hindemith Third Piano Concerto Analysis

Program Notes
By Xiaohan Sun

Béla Bartók
Born 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary
Died 1945, New York, New York
Viola Concerto (1945)

Bartok left two major concertos unfinished: the Third piano concerto and the Viola Concerto. The former was complete except for the orchestration of the last seventeen measures, but the latter required much more extensive work. The manuscript for this unfinished work was given to Bartok’s friend and informal student Tibor Serly, who reconstructed the work and prepared it for publication. The first performance was given on December 2, 1949, in Minneapolis. The work has become a staple in the orchestra repertoire and has enjoyed great popularity with audiences for over sixty years. However, musicologists and critics
He began composing in a post-Romantic style, although his textures are generally not full and moved toward a neoclassicism during the 1920’s. In 1930, Hindemith had consolidated his research and as he continued to develop his own personal style he began to produce a series of masterpieces and sonatas for almost every major instrument. The composer describes the work as “… a strong, well-nourished piece with a durable inner lining for the cold weather. The second movement has a tricky rhythm that one first has to stalk with caution to get under one’s control. In the last movement [there are] two variations on what is already a full-size rondo movement…” This is a well conceived and executed tonal work- one that displays the full capabilities of the viola and of the
It is written for a five stringed cello. The Prelude of the D major prelude is the longest and grandest of the 6. It is an exuberant fast flowing introduction into D major. It is one of the only two movements Bach indicated dynamic. Bars are frequently written in repeated pairs, the first one strong, and the second one is an echo of the former one. The only other movement in the 6 cello Suites that has dynamic markings is the Sarabande in D minor. The Allemande is a German dance. The meter is 4/4, a calm walking dance without jumps. Courante is a French dance, was the favorite dance of King Lous XIV and he is said to have been very good at it. Allemande and Courante formed a pair, in which the Allemande is the calmer dance in 4, the courante the faster dance in 3. The Sarabande has its orgin in Spain. It is a slow majestic processional dance in ¾ or 3/2 with an accent on the 2nd beat and the first. In Suite 6 the Sarabande movement is in 3/2. All Sarabandes starts on the first beat. The Sarabande has two main accents, on beat one and on beat two and the third beat has no accent. The Gavottes are in 2/2 or 4/4 and all start with an upbeat of 2/4. The main accent is on beat one and the other accent is on beat three. Even if it is sometimes written in 4/4, the feeling is 2/2. Beat two and four have an upbeat character and no accent of their own. The micro-dynamic units are usually one bar. The first Gavotte is joyous