Hin und zurück

CONTENT
Helene is sitting with her deaf Aunt Emma at the breakfast table. Her husband Robert returns home unexpectedly, bringing her a birthday present. Helene attempts in vain to conceal the receipt of a letter from her clandestine lover from Robert. When she admits to her affair, Robert is filled with jealousy and shoots his wife. Despite intensive medicinal intervention, the professor and a caretaker are only able to establish the death of Helene. Robert suddenly realises what he has done and jumps out of the window. Aunt Emma has been the silent witness of all these events which remain absolutely incomprehensible to her. Then a wise man enters: ‘Seen from the heavens above, it is of no importance whether the path of an individual’s life strays forwards from the cradle to the grave, or whether he dies first and is subsequently born.’
The events are reversed: Robert comes back to life, Helene stands up again, the dispute between the two dies down and the work ends with the untroubled breakfast scene of the beginning.

COMMENTARY
The content of this brief work possesses the character of a social satire. The actions running as if in fast motion satirise standard scenes from the operatic repertoire such as deception, jealousy, murder and suicide. The mirror-symmetrical progression of the plot is reflected in the retrogressive order of the individual formal sections – a technique which Hindemith and Schiffer probably recreated from cartoon films. Hindemith composed the music for a wind ensemble with piano accompaniment which underlines the cabaret style of the work. The central section of the piece with the monologue of the wise man is in contrast set against the accompaniment of a backstage harmonium. The sketch of Hin und zurück was completed within a few days during the May of 1927. The text was written by the Berlin cabaret author Marcellus Schiffer (1882-1932) with whom Hindemith would subsequently collaborate on the full-length opera Neues vom Tage (1929). The performance of the sketch was given during the music festival ‘Deutsche Kammermusik Baden-Baden’ in 1927 a supplementary event following the Donaueschingen Kammermusiktage for which Hindemith had been intensively involved in the programme planning since 1923. The Baden-Baden music festival which was intended as an experimental workshop was dedicated in 1927 to the areas of chamber music, sound film, mechanical music and chamber operas. Hin und zurück was performed on numerous stages throughout Germany up to the year 1933, for example at the Krolloper in Berlin (conducted by Otto Klemperer and directed by Hans Curjel with the stage design by László Moholy-Nagy). The work has remained a popular work for performances in music conservatoires and universities up to the present day. (S. Sch.-G.)