Paul Hindemith
Kammermusik 1-7

Frankfurt, 1921-1922.

The young Paul Hindemith, then conductor of the opera orchestra, was considered the leading figure among the new generation of German composers. With the rise of Nazism, things changed. Joseph Goebbels publicly called Hindemith a "vile atonal noisemaker," and his work began to be viewed in a different light.
After all, an ambiguous style and the taste for parody (partially borrowed from Stravinsky) were absolutely unacceptable for Nazi Germany, and even the defenses of a prominent name like Furtwängler were of no use. So Hindemith left Germany, moving to Switzerland in 1938.

But let's go back a few years.

If we want to delve deeper into the context that led to the creation of this work, we should go back to the period of the immediate post-war (the Great War, of course) and the consequent fall of the German Empire; the massacres and economic chaos in which Germany found itself plunged (exacerbated by the debts imposed by the Treaty of Versailles amounting to about $33 billion) had disastrous effects on every aspect of public life in the nation, and music, unfortunately, was no exception. In such a situation, it was unthinkable to continue composing music for large orchestras as required by the works of Mahler or Strauss, and chamber music began to assume an importance hitherto unprecedented.
At the same time, the sumptuous late Romantic style appeared dated and not in line with the times, and composers like Schreker (listen to his chamber symphony from 1923) were trying new paths, although the underlying model, Schoenberg, was quite evident.

Hindemith from his earliest compositions had demonstrated a marked affinity for contrapuntal forms and a very Baroque sensitivity, so much so that the seven Kammermusik were read by more than one critic as the twentieth-century equivalent of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. In each, the solo role is assigned to a different instrument.

Kammermusik n.1 (1921) is a rather anarchic suite for 12 instruments that probably owes much to Stravinsky, in which Hindemith pours the experience accumulated playing in Frankfurt bands; n. 2 (1924), for piano and 12 instruments, retains very little of the irreverent spirit of the previous one and appears very similar in structure to a Baroque concerto.

Kammermusik n. 3 (1924) is a concerto for cello and 10 instruments that in the sequence of the four movements (slow-fast-slow-fast) perfectly recalls the structure of the Baroque sonata;  in n. 4 (1925), in five movements, the soloist role is entrusted to the violin and the accompanying ensemble is mainly characterized by wind instruments.

No. 5 and No. 6, respectively for viola and viola d'amore (an instrument widely used during the Baroque period and later fell into disuse) are probably the least edgy and formally daring of the bunch, with a constant preference for winds in the ensemble while the strings are reduced to a handful of cellos and double basses. 

The cycle closes with Kammermusik n. 7 (1927), for organ and 11 instruments, which is also the only one that reflects the traditional concerto form divided into three movements. Notable is the use of the many polyphonic possibilities offered by the solo instrument and the ensemble.

The importance of this work for chamber music of the past century is fundamental, and, together with the symphonic masterpiece "Mathis Der Mahler," grants Hindemith a place among the great composers of the 20th century.