As if in slow motion, librettist Thornton Wilder summarizes a series of Christmas dinners celebrated by the Bayard family over a period of ninety years and fuses them into a single long meal. The concentration of the characters and their standardization are all things that Hindemith's setting picks up on: he counterbalanced them musically by means of development, individualization, and variation - thus designing a kind of music that expresses contingency - significant coincidence - as an attitude toward life. The view of what Wilder calls the "mill of time" is thus always a view of the future as well - whether we perceive that as misfortune or consolation or both at once.
1 Einleitung (Introduction), (God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen / Weihnachtslied)
2 Szene 1 (Scene 1)
3 Szenen 2 Und 3 (Scens 2 and 3)
4 Szene 4, Anfung Von Szene 5 (Scene 4, Beginning of Scene 5)
5 Szene 5: Wie War Denn Gestern Abend Der Ball? (Scene 5: Did You Enjoy Yourselves at the Ball?)
6 Szenen 6 Und 7 (Scenes 6 and 7)
7 Szene 8 (Scene 8)
8 Szene 9 (Scene 9)
9 Szene 10 (Scene 10)
10 Szenen 11 Und 12 (Scenes 11 and 12)
As if in slow motion, librettist Thornton Wilder summarizes a series of Christmas dinners celebrated by the Bayard family over a period of ninety years and fuses them into a single long meal. The concentration of the characters and their standardization are all things that Hindemith's setting picks up on: he counterbalanced them musically by means of development, individualization, and variation - thus designing a kind of music that expresses contingency - significant coincidence - as an attitude toward life. The view of what Wilder calls the "mill of time" is thus always a view of the future as well - whether we perceive that as misfortune or consolation or both at once.
