The Culminating Finale in Paul Hindemith’s Symphony The Harmony of the World

Abstract

The culminating function of the symphonic finale arises in symphonic cycles in which
its position is strengthened by a complicated form, large scale, tonal certainty, the completion of
the development of through figurative and intonational lines of the cycle, as well as the semantic
significance of the concept. The active process of thematic synthesis in the finale accumulates and
concentrates the musical events in the final stage of the dramaturgy. As a result, a certain “final”
statement becomes the result of the directed formation of an artistic idea from one movement to the
next and is manifested by the composer as the final image.
The aim of this article is to examine the culminating function of the finale by the example
of Harmony of the World by Paul Hindemith. Thus, a set of tasks is determined: to identify the
signs of the culminating finale on the level of structure, tonal dramaturgy, intonation dramaturgy,
and the manifestation of the artistic idea of the cycle. As a result of the study, it is shown that the
finale is written in a large-scale contrast-composite form, the last movement of the cycle is tonally
stable and ultimately leads to the parallel key of E major, completes the monothematic process as
movements from the theme of the introduction of the first movement to the final themes of the fugue
and passacaglia. On a conceptual level, in the outcome, the general image of the finale is asserted
– that of the Cosmos, which absorbs the energy of the image of the Earth and counterbalancing the
disharmony of the image of Man. The finale becomes the apotheosis of the Harmony of the World.

Keywords: Hindemith, finale, dramaturgy, culmination, conception, harmony of the world