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Paul Hindemith

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Composer

The Resume

    (November 16, 1895-December 28, 1963)
    Born in Hanau, Germany
    Composer, conductor, violinist and violist
    Composed the operas ‘Cardillac’ (1926), ‘Mathis der Maler’ (1934), ‘The Harmony of the World’ (1957) and ‘The Long Christmas Dinner’ (1961)
    Composed the song cycles ‘The Young Maid’ (1922) and ‘The Life of Mary’ (1924)
    Also composed ‘Concert Music for Strings and Brass’ (1930) ‘Violin Concerto’ (1939), ‘Cello Concerto’ (1940), ‘Symphony in E Flat’ (1940) and ‘Symphonic Metamorphoses After Themes by Carl Maria von Weber’ (1946)
    Wrote ‘The Craft of Musical Composition’ (1941) and ‘A Composer’s World: Horizons and Limitations’ (1951)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was so frightened of his authoritarian father that he would panic at the thought of his father showing up unexpectedly, even years after his father’s death.
    He dismissed his early compositions as ‘old fashioned stuff’ and ‘absolutely unenjoyable.’
    His one-act opera ‘Sancta Susanna,’ depicting a nunnery descending into a sexual frenzy, was so controversial that as late as 1977 a performance in Rome resulted in criminal complaints being lodged against the mayor and the opera director.
    While conducting a rehearsal of one of his more dissonant compositions, he instructed the orchestra, ‘It sounds wrong, but it still isn’t right.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He played almost all the standard classical instruments at least passably, and was a virtuoso on viola d’amour.
    As a teen, he helped support his family with his violin playing.
    He was denounced by Joseph Goebbels as a ‘cultural Bolshevist’ and ‘atonal noisemaker.’
    He was invited by Kemal Ataturk to reorganize the music education system in Turkey (1935), and helped many Jewish musicians escape Germany by hiring them to teach music in Turkey.
    He said, ‘Not all old music is good. There was rubbish in former times as well. It should be played just as rarely as the new nonsense.’
    Glenn Gould described his work as ‘the true amalgam of ecstasy and reason.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 18 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 21 Votes: 76.19% Annoying