Hindemith, Toch, andGrammophonmusik

Abstract

On’ 18 June 1930, a new type of composition was introduced to the musical world. Performed at a concert of modern music in Berlin that evening were three Originalwerke für Schallplatten by Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch. Grammophonmusik, as Toch called it, was an attempt to use sound recording not simply to recreate musical performance, but to create new music. The idea generated a great deal of interest in the early decades of the twentieth century, attracting composers and critics in Europe and North America. The techniques of Grammophonmusik drew upon the nature and function of recording technology. Novel sounds and textures were created by altering the speed and direction of discs during playback; passages performed at different times were juxtaposed and superimposed. And though it was never realized, several writers proposed the idea of disc inscription: apre‐electronic form of musical synthesis in which composers would inscribe discs directly, imitating traditional sounds or inventing new ones without the aid of a performer. Though largely forgotten now, the brief life of Grammophonmusik deserves renewed attention, for it illuminates a chapter of twentieth‐century music in which composers explored new timbrai, rhythmic, and contrapuntal possibilities for their works, sought independence from performers, and began a complex, profound, and continuing relationship with the technologies that preserve and disseminate musical sound.

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