Taos School of Music News:

Taos School of Music’s Sunday Sit-Down concert is 4 p.m. today at St. James Episcopal Church in Taos.

The concert features a string quartet by Paul Hindemith. Hindemith, a prominent German composer, performer, pedagogue, and conductor, navigated challenging times during the 1930s in Germany, but ultimately his musical conviction made him a target of Nazi officials and he was forced to flee.

Born in 1895, Hindemith initially enjoyed acclaim for his innovative compositions and contributions to musical theory. However, as the Nazi regime gained power in the 1930s, Hindemith faced increasing pressure due to his music’s modernist tendencies and his perceived association with Jewish musicians. Hindemith eventually fell out of favor with the Nazis, who labeled his music as “degenerate”.

The Nazis’ rise to power deeply impacted Hindemith’s career and personal life. In 1934, he was dismissed from his position at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, marking the beginning of his estrangement from German musical institutions. Hindemith’s works were banned from performance, and he found himself marginalized within the cultural sphere of Nazi Germany. The most famous episode during this period was the “Hindemith Affair”, in which Nazi official Heinrich Göring prohibited the famed conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler from premiering what is today considered Hindemith’s most important orchestral work, Mathis der Maler.

The final straw for Hindemith in Germany was his inclusion in the the regime’s Entartete (“Degenerate”) Musik exhibit, in which musicians identified as having modernist proclivities were ridiculed. Hindemith was in good company; also included in the exhibit were the composers Alban Berg, Ernst Toch, Hans Eisler, Igor Stravinsky, Franz Schreker, Ernst Krenek and Kurt Weill. Fearing his safety, Hindemith and his wife, Gertrud, soon after fled to Switzerland.

Read more about Hindemith and the Nazi regime:
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/hindemith-paul/

And, a bit about the Entartete Musik exhibit:
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/entartete-musik/