Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
I - Molto energico (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 100) - Più calmo (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 88) - Largo - Più largo - Tempo primo (𝅗𝅥 = 100): 0:00
II - Slow march (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 76) - Più lento (𝅘𝅥 = 56-60) - Pennsylvania Dutch ditty "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lum beschatz". Allegro assai (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 126) - Moderato (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 88) - Più lento (𝅘𝅥 = 80) - Calmo: 6:57
III - Ostinato (𝅘𝅥 = 80) - Allegro moderato (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 92) - Tranquillo - Tempo primo - Poco più largamente: 18:53
Hindemith's Pittsburgh Symphony was composed in Blonay between August 9 and November 11 of 1958, being commissioned by the Pittsburgh Bicentennial Committee to celebrate the bicentenary of the city of Pittsburgh. It was premiered in Pittsburgh on January 30 of 1959, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. It was the last major orchestral work before his death on 1963.
To accomplish this musical celebration, Hindemith included two songs associated with the city in the fabric of his work, the Pennsylvania Dutch folk song "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lumbeschatz" in the central portion of the second movement and the contemporary folk song "Pittsburgh Is a Great Old Town" by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in the final portion of the third movement. "Despite its light weight and grotesque high spirits", Hindemith regarded the first song as "centrepiece" of the symphony, thus creating a musical monument to the German culture and language in Pennsylvania.
Hindemith had known Pennsylvania since his travels of the 1930s. Its mix of farmland and factories reminded him of the landscape around his native Frankfurt. The Amish and the "Pennsylvania Dutch", descended from eighteenth-century Rhineland immigrants, caught his imagination: his own wartime exile in the USA perhaps heightened his identification with these rural communities, stubbornly preserving their Germanic traditions and independence into America’s brash, industrialized modern times. The Pittsburgh Symphony makes such ideas explicit, quoting folk songs both ancient and modern
The first movement is structured in three sections. It begins with a rhythmic and polytonal main theme on full orchestra, contrapuntally unfolding full of vigour and energy. The melodic angularity of the material (characteristic of Hindemith’s last years) and immense rhythmic drive perhaps reflect some impression of Pittsburgh’s great steel mills. The entire first movement evolves through repetitions of this theme, each time presented in a different tonal colours and used as the basis, both in its original and inverted form, for contrapuntal developments. The central section has a widely lyrical and expressive second theme, becoming more mystical and offering great contrast. A fiercely dissonant climax launches a boisterous coda whith which the movement ends.
The second movement is also written in three main sections, effectively combining the slow movement and a scherzo in a single entity. It opens with a melodic main theme in form of a march, exposed by the oboe and accompanied by the antiphonal marked rhythms of muted strings and winds. This material then becomes the subject of several variations, with different timbrical combinations, tempi, rhythms and ornamentation. As the tempo quickens, the folksong "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lumbeschatz" appears on the brass, full of a rustic sense of vitality. It is then subjected to six quick variations, before Hindemith combines both themes in counterpoint, leading to an impetuous climax. The ensuing recapitulation also features both themes, the march on clarinets and bassoons and the folksong on muted brass. The movement concludes with a highly expressive lento coda.
The third movement is structured as a passacaglia. It begins with a short and dissonant introduction, in which a row of eight notes (E -flat, A-flat, B-flat, F, F -sharp, A, E, D) is introduced as the basic subject. The ensuing allegro moderato unfolds it in a contrapuntal way in a largely quiet section, transforming in colour, length, shape and rhythm. This passacaglia culminates in a vigorously dissonant climax. The brass in unison then introduces the melody of "Pittsburg is a great old town" (attributed to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie) in a celebratory hymn-like manner. The work ends as the rest of the orchestra rings out in a coda full of jubilation.
Picture: "Pittsburgh: The Monongahela Waterfront in 1900" by the English painter John Stobart.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/ykq8ohwh, tinyurl.com/yleu5gqx and tinyurl.com/ymyhcuo6
To check the score: tinyurl.com/yovss3ff
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
I - Molto energico (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 100) - Più calmo (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 88) - Largo - Più largo - Tempo primo (𝅗𝅥 = 100): 0:00
II - Slow march (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 76) - Più lento (𝅘𝅥 = 56-60) - Pennsylvania Dutch ditty "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lum beschatz". Allegro assai (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 126) - Moderato (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 88) - Più lento (𝅘𝅥 = 80) - Calmo: 6:57
III - Ostinato (𝅘𝅥 = 80) - Allegro moderato (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 92) - Tranquillo - Tempo primo - Poco più largamente: 18:53
Hindemith's Pittsburgh Symphony was composed in Blonay between August 9 and November 11 of 1958, being commissioned by the Pittsburgh Bicentennial Committee to celebrate the bicentenary of the city of Pittsburgh. It was premiered in Pittsburgh on January 30 of 1959, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. It was the last major orchestral work before his death on 1963.
To accomplish this musical celebration, Hindemith included two songs associated with the city in the fabric of his work, the Pennsylvania Dutch folk song "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lumbeschatz" in the central portion of the second movement and the contemporary folk song "Pittsburgh Is a Great Old Town" by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in the final portion of the third movement. "Despite its light weight and grotesque high spirits", Hindemith regarded the first song as "centrepiece" of the symphony, thus creating a musical monument to the German culture and language in Pennsylvania.
Hindemith had known Pennsylvania since his travels of the 1930s. Its mix of farmland and factories reminded him of the landscape around his native Frankfurt. The Amish and the "Pennsylvania Dutch", descended from eighteenth-century Rhineland immigrants, caught his imagination: his own wartime exile in the USA perhaps heightened his identification with these rural communities, stubbornly preserving their Germanic traditions and independence into America’s brash, industrialized modern times. The Pittsburgh Symphony makes such ideas explicit, quoting folk songs both ancient and modern
The first movement is structured in three sections. It begins with a rhythmic and polytonal main theme on full orchestra, contrapuntally unfolding full of vigour and energy. The melodic angularity of the material (characteristic of Hindemith’s last years) and immense rhythmic drive perhaps reflect some impression of Pittsburgh’s great steel mills. The entire first movement evolves through repetitions of this theme, each time presented in a different tonal colours and used as the basis, both in its original and inverted form, for contrapuntal developments. The central section has a widely lyrical and expressive second theme, becoming more mystical and offering great contrast. A fiercely dissonant climax launches a boisterous coda whith which the movement ends.
The second movement is also written in three main sections, effectively combining the slow movement and a scherzo in a single entity. It opens with a melodic main theme in form of a march, exposed by the oboe and accompanied by the antiphonal marked rhythms of muted strings and winds. This material then becomes the subject of several variations, with different timbrical combinations, tempi, rhythms and ornamentation. As the tempo quickens, the folksong "Hab lumbedruwwel mit me lumbeschatz" appears on the brass, full of a rustic sense of vitality. It is then subjected to six quick variations, before Hindemith combines both themes in counterpoint, leading to an impetuous climax. The ensuing recapitulation also features both themes, the march on clarinets and bassoons and the folksong on muted brass. The movement concludes with a highly expressive lento coda.
The third movement is structured as a passacaglia. It begins with a short and dissonant introduction, in which a row of eight notes (E -flat, A-flat, B-flat, F, F -sharp, A, E, D) is introduced as the basic subject. The ensuing allegro moderato unfolds it in a contrapuntal way in a largely quiet section, transforming in colour, length, shape and rhythm. This passacaglia culminates in a vigorously dissonant climax. The brass in unison then introduces the melody of "Pittsburg is a great old town" (attributed to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie) in a celebratory hymn-like manner. The work ends as the rest of the orchestra rings out in a coda full of jubilation.
Picture: "Pittsburgh: The Monongahela Waterfront in 1900" by the English painter John Stobart.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/ykq8ohwh, tinyurl.com/yleu5gqx and tinyurl.com/ymyhcuo6
To check the score: tinyurl.com/yovss3ff
