Der Dämon

CONTENT
The demon demonstrates his possessive character through dance. 
The two sisters display their youthful abandon and freshness. They are afraid of the demon; his poison renders them submissive and helpless. They frantically attempt to resist his arts of seduction, but he proves to be more powerful and ultimately grabs one of the sisters and leads her away in shackles, leaving the other sister behind in her grief. 
The demon sits on a throne with the shackled sister in the background. The other sister attempts to seduce the demon to retain power over him, but her efforts remain unsuccessful and she is ultimately also defeated by the brutality of the demon. He soon loses interest in his conquests, leaves the defeated sisters behind and presents himself in the end as the undisputed winner.

COMMENTARY
The dance-pantomime Der Dämon with its chamber orchestra scoring for fl ute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, piano and string quintet displays a similarity to the well-known Kammermusik Nr. 1 op. 24 Nr. 1 which had been performed for the fi st time in Donaueschingen in the summer of 1922. Numerous movements of Der Dämon are characterised by the dominance of rhythm which lends the ballet a compelling vitality, but the composition also includes intensive lyrical moments revealing Hindemith’s specifi c form of musical expressionism. The movements are not descriptive with tonal imagery, but pursue their individual autonomous musical laws. The music nevertheless displays a clear coordination with the symbolic plot of the ballet. Hindemith composed the dance-pantomime Der Dämon in the summer and autumn of 1922 for the dancer Nini Willenz who performed in Darmstadt. The work is based on a text by the Viennese author Max Krell; nothing is known about the background to the composition of the music. Following the completion of the composition, the originally planned première of the work was postponed from December 1922 by a year. The dance-pantomime was performed in numerous theatres in Germany and abroad up until 1934. The score printed in 1924 contains instructions by Hindemith: ‘This work is solely composed for the stage and cannot be performed in its entirety as a concert piece in its current form. There are however a few pieces which are suitable for performance in the concert hall. I will permit conductors to make a suitable selection for a concert performance.’ A note dating from 1931 has been preserved in which Hindemith recommends the selection of movements 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 11 for a concert performance. (S. Sch.-G.) 79