Paul Hindemith

Music declared “degenerate”

Paul Hindemith was one of the most performed composers in Germany when the Nazi regime classed his music among “degenerate” works. A leading violist, teacher and conductor, he saw his work progressively banned.

He left Germany in 1938 for Switzerland, then moved on to the United States, where he taught. The break was total: he would never live in his country again.

The Villa La Chance

Hindemith returned to Europe in 1951 as professor of musicology in Zurich. Two years later he settled with his wife Gertrud at the Villa La Chance in Blonay, above Vevey.

He was urged to return to Germany for good, where his rehabilitation was complete and where he was offered everything. He refused. Blonay would remain his anchor for his last ten years: it was from there that he set out to conduct and teach across Europe, and there that he came back.

Twenty-three years later, David Bowie would choose the same village to escape Los Angeles and its excesses. Two very different exiles, on the same hillside.

Vienna, December 1963

In November 1963, Hindemith travelled to Vienna to conduct the premiere of his “Mass”, his last completed work. He fell ill shortly afterwards.

Taken to a hospital in Frankfurt, he died there on 28 December 1963 of acute pancreatitis. He was buried on 4 January 1964 in the cemetery of La Chiésaz, in Saint-Légier, a few minutes from the house in Blonay.

What remains on the Riviera

Blonay is home to the Hindemith Foundation, which looks after his work and archives. A silhouette from the “Rencontres & Inspiration” trail is devoted to him in the village.

The Villa La Chance, where he spent his last ten years, is a private property. His grave is in the cemetery of La Chiésaz, in Saint-Légier.