Lehrstück

CONTENT
The abstract Lehrstück forms the companion piece to the radio feature Der Lindberghflug [Lindbergh’s Flight], a collaborative work for radio by Bertolt Brecht, Paul Hindemith und Kurt Weill. The latter work takes the concrete example of the successful flight over the ocean by the American Charles Lindbergh to demonstrate the mastering of technology by human beings, whereas Lehrstück demonstrates the underlying problems and consequences encountered by an individual who overestimates the power of technology in order to place himself in a superior position to others. Failure of technology – here symbolised by the plane crash – forces him to recognise that power leads to downfall when it possesses no benefit for the general community. This type of superiority can only result in the degradation to a ‘nobody’ and ultimately also death.

COMMENTARY
Hindemith first announced plans for a ‘kind of folk oratorio’ in March 1929 which he intended to develop in collaboration with Brecht. The first performance of this work within the framework of the Baden-Baden chamber music festival in 1929 created a scandal – not least due to the so-called clown scene and a provocative film extract – which had the effect that Hindemith’s composition soon made a name for itself. After having negotiated a further collaboration with Brecht in January 1930, the two finally fell out irrevocably during the course of the same year. As noted by Hindemith in his preface to the score, he viewed the piece as a musical-educational field of experimentation with the purpose of ‘involving all those present at the performance of a work […].
The progression of the work as indicated in the score is more a suggestion than a regulation. Omissions, additional elements and alterations in the order are possible.’ With this attitude, Hindemith was refuting Brecht’s political-social intentions to which he had aspired in the genre of Lehrstück. As a result, the writer distanced himself vehemently from the version of the original performance and shortly later published a different version of the work with a politically-social message under the title Das Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis [The Baden- Baden Lesson on consent]. The simple, bold, striking and thereby forceful music in Lehrstück corresponds to Hindemith’s demand for high-quality G e b ra u c h smu s i k [functional music] in his plea from the late 1920s. In accordance with the character of the intended ‘communal play’, details of the cast list are deliberately left open. (S. Sch.-G.)