Chamber Music II

After so much Wagner and so many Wagnerians over the last few days, it’s time for the opposite: chamber music that is witty, charming, funny, and playful – and often composed as a deliberate alternative to the German musical god, for example in Hindemith's Flying Dutchman spa orchestra parody, a work brimming with technical difficulties. In addition to his Dutchman, Hindemith composed numerous other parodies whose titles and instrumentation are all that have been preserved: for example, Music for 6 Instruments and a Page Turner, a Gouda-Emmental March, and a song in the style of Richard Strauss to a text from a beekeeping newspaper.