Composed in 1936, Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for Flute and Piano was written during a season of political and personal turmoil for Hindemith. The Sonata, premiering on April 10, 1937 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., was included as part of the Eighth Festival of Chamber Music. Legendary flutist Georges Barrère performed this now famous flute solo, accompanied by Jesús María Sanromá on piano. The event marked Hindemith’s presence in the United States after leaving the Nazi regime in Germany. A super popular piece in our flute world, it is programmed regularly on recitals and featured frequently on album releases. The challenge, therefore, is making it sound unique, colorful, and full of new possibilities. In this blog, I offer a few tips on tackling this piece and making it your own. Think of it less as a solo to learn for your next recital and more as a story to tell in your own flute voice. Sing it loud and proud and always keep it interesting!
Keep it somewhat light (except in the second movement). It is really easy to play everything heavy, with accents on virtually every note, particularly in the first movement. The opening theme definitely gives main character energy, as if the hero of the story has already won the battle. But what fun would that be? The story ends at the beginning? I don’t think so. Hold back a bit on your vibrato and accents in the first movement, and again at the beginning of the third movement. Save the drama for the second, more melancholy movement (which acts like an aria), and the stately accents for the concluding march. This will give the piece the tone color variety it needs to paint a musical scene.
Pull up a German translator app and write in the translation to all those German tempo directives. Ask your favorite professional flutist if they know what “wider lebhaft” means. We know it means to change to a different, more lively character but what the actual words mean might take a little research (P.S. It translates to “lively again”). Looking up the terms and writing them in the music will take the mystery out of character and tempo changes. This will, in turn, make it easy to add your own tone color interpretations to fit the intentions of the composer. We’ve got you, Paul!
Practice longer, technical lines in chunks. Bits of challenging, technical passages tend to summersault unexpectedly out of longer, melodic lines. The best way to prepare for these technical outbursts is to practice them in chunks. Take the first 3-4 notes and practice them separately followed by a long pause. Then practice the next 3-4 notes separately, adding a long pause before the next chunk, and so on. Once you have mastered these individual smaller chunks, put the line back together as written. A great example of this can be found 4 measures before rehearsal number 5 in the opening movement (shown above). Practice those triplets in smaller units. This is magical for your brain! The brain likes to piece smaller bits of information together rather than dwell on longer strings of material.
There are two characters at play in the first and third movements. There is a heroic melody in the first movement (shown above), introducing us to the knight in shining armor that will save the melancholy heroine in the second movement from her despair.
This hero is interrupted briefly at rehearsal number 3 with a strange, slower moving line out of nowhere. This line is taken over by the return of the major, forward-moving line at “Wieder lehaft,” as if the hero snapped out of whatever weird trance he was temporarily under. This slower moving melody appears again after rehearsal 8 until rehearsal 9 in a similar fashion. Okay….weird.
But even weirder is that this type of strange interrupting emo melody is also found in the third movement. In the third movement, we have a more jovial dance-line movement. Chill, fun, no drama. Yet, 4 measures before rehearsal 18 (shown above) we find another low, moody melody that seems to hit pause on the skipping theme until the fermata 9 measures before rehearsal 19. Although we return to the happy, light-hearted joy of the opening measures after the fermata, the Debbie Downer, creeptastic melody returns 6 measures before rehearsal number 27, leading us into the final March where it disappears.
I believe that the moody melody may represent the hero’s inner critic, whispering untruths that he is not good enough to be the hero of this story. We’ve all heard that negative voice from time to time. You know, the one that tells you lies about your worth. I believe that Hindemith composed an actual musical voice for these whispers of defeat.
Use a different tone color to bring out the ominous character of this line. Slow down your vibrato and perhaps thin out your sound to create a dark, spooky, whisper. Or use a super dark sound to contrast against the brightness of the surrounding music.
The second movement is a flute aria. Make this sound as if you are singing through your flute. One of the unique characteristics of the second movement is that the musical line tends to grow from one note to the next, as if the notes are plants, blooming and rescinding with the light of the sun. Crescendos help us warm the sound gradually from one octave to the next over the course of an eighth note. I like to think of our air as a gas pedal here. Avoid going from 0 to 60 to achieve those notes in the high register (particularly 2 measures before rehearsal 11). Instead, carefully and steadily increase your air speed so that the lower note grows gracefully into the higher note, as if to apply gradual pressure to a gas pedal when merging onto a freeway.
Use your most powerful vibrato and soaring sound in the high register. Since we have a slow-moving melody in the high register, particularly in the measures leading to rehearsal number 11, and a powerful high-register melody that makes its presence known at rehearsal number 12 (shown above), you will want to spend some extra time during your daily warm-ups on some good old harmonics. These will help center your high notes by projecting them from a strong tonal foundation. Since this is an aria, we want to sing – not scream.
The concluding March is slower and more stately than you may think. This is not a Sousa march. There are no screaming piccolos or boisterous brass. This is a chill, victory march. Our hero has battled his demons, rescued the heroine, silenced his inner critic, and won against all odds! Now he is calmly yet happily celebrating with his buddies at the pub. Dial back the tempo (it is only half note = 100-108, after all!). Stately is the word for this movement. There is no drama. Just carefully organized, straight-forward beats and rhythms. It is the very theme song to the words, “The End.”
Have you performed the Hindemith Sonata for Flute and Piano? What helped you give new life to this work?
Happy fluting!
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About the Author, Rachel Taylor Geier:
Rachel Taylor Geier holds a DMA in Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, an MM in Flute Performance from San Francisco State University, and a BM in Music Performance from DePauw University. Former applied instructors include Immanuel Davis, Linda Lukas, Anne Reynolds, and Rhonda Bradetich. Dr. Geier currently teaches and freelances in Davis, California and hosts a popular Flute Friday Blog Series.
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