HILDA JAMIESON
STEWART DEAS
Paul Hindemith, whose music is being increasingly heard in this country, began his career as a viola-player; for seven years he led the violas at the Frankfort Opera and later joined the Amar Quartet as the viola of the combination. It was natural, therefore, that many of his early compositions were chamber music and it was very largely on his string quartets and his sonatas that he made his first reputation.
A glance at the list of Hindemith's works shows very clearly that he is apt to hold on to a particular form or medium until he has said all that he has in mind at the time. Thus he writes in groups. Opus 11, tor example, indicates that having something to say in Sonata form he was not prepared to leave that medium until he had exhausted it; and in this group there arc sonatas for violin and piano, viola solo, viola and piano, and cello and piano. One or two of these sonatas have been broadcast more than once, and since more soloists are taking them into their repertoires they will be heard more frequently. Hindemith's idiom, at first strange, is rapidly finding its appreciative audience.