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Three well-known 20th
-century classical composers were Charles Griffes, Gustav Holst,
and Paul Hindemith. All three were born in the late 19th
-century but composed most of their
famous works in the 1900s. Many historical events that occurred in their lifetimes affected the
music they wrote.
Charles Griffes was born in Elmira, New York in 1884. As a child, he had an early interest
in painting and drama. His sister, Katharine, often played European classics on the piano, which
inspired him to master the instrument as well. In 1903, at the age of 24, Griffes took a voyage
to Berlin, Germany that was financed by his piano mentor, Mary Selena Broughton. He studied
in Berlin for four years, and like many other composers, Germany began to have a musical
effect on him. He became fluent in German and encountered several prominent artists, such as
Richard Strauss, Ferruccio Busoni, Isadora Duncan, and Enrico Caruso. The German experience
plunged Griffes into the musical styling of Romanticism.
In order to economically support himself, he returned to New York in 1907. He took a
post as music instructor at Hackley School in Tarrytown, to make a living. He was frequently
unhappy. His genius compositional abilities far exceeded his duties and small salary. He was
also a homosexual, and could not publicly express this at Hackley. He felt increasingly isolated
emotionally and artistically, so during this time, his compositions were scarce. Because of
World War I, there were many anti-German feelings in America. Griffes felt cut off from his
European friends in Germany. The sense of isolation and lack of appreciation for his talents
spurred him to find recognition from his works in the professional world. At this time, his
compositions became much less conventional. His music was influenced by an eclectic mix of
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French Impressionism, Oriental arts, and experimenting. Many of his works had a lot of
dissonance, reflecting the chaotic time period in his life.
After 1914, his life took an upswing. The on-going liaison with John Meyer, a married
New York policeman, provided a sort of stability to his personal life. During this time, Griffes
produced his most important compositions, such as the tone poem The Pleasure Dome of Kubla
Khan and his Poem for Flute and Orchestra. Unfortunately, he died prematurely in 1920 at the
age of 35, from influenza.
Gustav Holst was an eclectic composer from England. His early music was influenced by
Greig, Wagner, and Strauss. However, as he travelled the globe, he was introduced to other
more obscure topics like Hindu spiritualism, folk tunes, and astronomy, which helped him
create his own style. In the early stages of his life, his composing success was minimal, but his
creation ofThe Planetsorchestral suite was his breakthrough piece. Unlike Charles Griffes,
Holst enjoyed teaching music. He was music master at a variety of colleges and schools in
London. Like Charles Griffes, World War I also affected Holst, but in a surprisingly positive
manner. There had been an embargo on contemporary German music, so throughout the war,
very few recent German compositions wee performed in England, including those by Strauss.
Holsts musical career was propelled by this. He retired from all teaching in 1923, and devoted
the remaining eleven years of his life to composition.
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A third 20th
-century composer is Paul Hindemith, a German nationalist, composer, string
player, teacher, and conductor. Throughout his life, his music style transformed from
Romanticism to Expressionism to a type of Neoclassicism. Hindemith employed a unique
musical system that was tonal but non-diatonic, meaning it centered on a tonic and modulated
tonic centers, but used all twelve notes freely. A key feature of his style was a melody that did
not clearly outline major or minor triads. Unlike Griffes and Holst, it was World War II that more
affected Hindemiths music. He had a very complicated relationship with the Nazis. Some Nazis
condemned his music as degenerate because of his early, sexually-charged operas. Even the
German Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Geobbels, publicly denounced Hindemith as an atonal
noisemaker. However, other Nazi officials thought he provided an example of a modern
German composer, to symbolize the progress of Germany. Throughout the 1930s, controversy
around his works continued, and he fell in and out of favor with the Nazi regime multiple times.
In the end, he emigrated to Switzerland in 1938, partly because his wife was Jewish.
Charles Griffes, Gustav Holst, and Paul Hindemith shared many commonalities. They
individually developed each of their own musical styles, and all had unique influences on their
compositions. All three of these 20th
-century composers were affected by historical events
occurring in their lifetimes.
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Works Cited
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemith
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.html