One of Hindemith's most powerful orchestral scores, the Symphonic Dances of 1937 had its origins in his famous collaboration with choreographer Leonid Massine, which produced the ballet Nobilissima Visione, based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. That ballet (and the popular concert hall suite derived from it) was not, however, the first attempt by composer and choreographer to find a mutually agreeable subject and musical treatment. An earlier project had been well underway when Hindemith and Massine shelved it in favor of the St. Francis ballet; the unused material was recycled as the four Symphonic Dances.

An opening flourish on high strings is followed by an introductory slow march of measured tread and solemn mien, very much in the vein of Hindemith's major work during this era. The importance of these opening bars cannot be overstated: the rhythm of the slow march forms an almost constant undercurrent throughout the four movements, even in the most energetic passages.

Hindemith follows this introduction with a somewhat surprising gesture, in which the main theme is stated fugally, its noble and long-breathed phrases heard first in unison strings. There is a folk-like, pastoral quality to the themes and their working-out, with plenty of solo opportunities for woodwinds and strings. Listeners who know well the sound world of such works as Hindemith's Symphony: Mathis der Maler and Der Schwanendreher will find themselves on familiar ground with this music.

The second movement is a hell-for-leather scherzo, though not in triple time, in which a brusque tutti gesture from the orchestra sets off a brisk and somewhat terrifying allegro. The underlying pulse is broad and measured, but on this foundation there is much energetic contrapuntal activity. Percussion is to the fore here, with side drum, tambourine and timpani fueling a menacing episode with low brass that climaxes with militaristic trumpet and horn calls volleying above the orchestral tumult. A middle section finds violas and cellos declaiming in recitative style with rhetorical chords from the brass interjected. The opening allegro returns with even greater vehemence before a conclusion that reprises the battle calls from the brass.

A clarinet plays a supple theme against lamenting chords in the strings as the third movement, the shortest of the four, provides a brief respite from the hell's kitchen that has preceded it. The slow march beat of the introduction is more obviously evoked here as a solo flute plays, against muted strings, a sombre melody that is taken up by the orchestra as an outcry of protest and defiance, before a return of the lament on the clarinet. The end is quiet, dignified, and free of sentiment.

A striving theme on unison strings opens the final movement, with the broad meter of the slow march again in evidence. Early on a chorale theme appears, first in woodwinds, then in low strings and brass; it will recur to good effect later. Meantime, the music proceeds with tough counterpoint, the opening theme developed with forceful statements from strings, altercating with hammering chords from brass and percussion. A climax of impressive power is answered by a return of the chorale theme, expressed first in woodwinds, underpinned by busy pizzicati, then with the force of the full orchestra, led by blazing brass.



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