Songs of the Poets
by John Hoffacker
"Songs of the Poets" was performed on June 1 & 2, 2001

Born in 1895, Paul Hindemith was playing violin and viola at age 13 with dance bands and in theatres around Frankfort-am-Main. In the 1920s he gained international recognition as a composer and taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from 1927 until 1934, when the fascist government decided his music was too modern. In 1940 Hindemith came to the United States and completely revamped the music program at Yale University. He taught at Yale until 1953, and from his studio emerged some of the twentieth century’s greatest composers. Perhaps not since Nadia Boulanger has there been such a profound single influence on the future of musical composition. Hindemith died in Zurich in 1963.

Hindemith’s music essentially follows traditional models, using a scientifically-derived tonal system as its base. His Six Chansons are carefully based on 16thcentury French madrigal style, mixing solo and ensemble textures and exquisitely portraying the sense and story of the texts. The six songs might be interpreted as depicting a life, beginning with delight in youth, mourning the quick passage of maturity, and finally finding redemption after death. As a set, these pieces constitute some of the most significant modern works for chamber chorus.

Perhaps the most famous student of Paul Hindemith was Norman Dello Joio (born 1913), who in 1957 received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Meditations on Ecclesiastes for string orchestra. It’s no coincidence that this masterpiece derives from Biblical origins—Dello Joio began his career (also at age 13) as a church organist in New York City. His family included several musicians, including Pietro Yon, who composed the inescapable “Gesu Bambino.” Dello Joio blazed like a meteor in the New York music scene in the 1950s, and he was eventually named head of the Music Division of Boston University, where he worked until retiring from academic life to devote himself entirely to composing.

Dello Joio’s music combines great lyricism, expressive melodies, and a tremendous sense of rhythm. Always compelling, the music delivers the text in bold, dramatic ways. For his cantata To Saint Cecilia, Dello Joio selected text from John Dryden’s (1631-1700) poem A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day and arranged the accompaniment for either piano, organ, or brass ensemble. The instrumental introduction lays out the rhythmic and melodic themes that recur throughout the piece. The entire work builds gradually to a powerful conclusion, proclaiming music’s primal role in the creation the universe.

Another student from Hindemith’s studio was Emma Lou Diemer (born 1927), who calls herself a “situational composer.” Diemer says of herself, “Most of my music has been produced within a certain context: composition student, composer-in-residence, organist/ choir director in various churches, university professor. If I had been apprenticed to a ballet company, a symphony orchestra, or an opera company, I would have written music for that situation... I have little affinity with the composers who write only for their fellow composers. Some of history’s dullest, most ephemeral music has been produced for that reason.”

As it turns out, Diemer’s career has taken her from composer-in-residence for the Richmond, Virginia public schools to Southern California. She has spent the last sixty years as a church musician and freelance composer, as well as professor of composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Diemer’s work “At a Solemn Music,” which sets the poem by John Milton, begins with the line “Blest pair of sirens, pledges of heaven’s joy.” A quasi-religious text, it graphically depicts the sounds of heaven and earth—concord and discord—that eventually unite in a triumphant hymn.