Gebrauchsmusik

Term for a type of musical work written for practical use and best translated as ‘workaday music’. It was common among German composers in the 1920s and 1930s, most closely associated with Paul Hindemith, who is usually credited with having coined the phrase, although he later disavowed this. Hindemith's published works of the kind (several are unpublished) are: Spielmusik for strings, flutes, and oboes (1927), four three-part Songs for Singing Groups, an educational work for concerted violins in first position (1927), Music to Sing or Play (five nos. for various vocal or instrumental combinations), Lesson for two male voices, narrator, chorus, orchestra, a dancer, clowns, and community singing (1929), Let's Build a Town, a musical game for children (1930), and Plöner Musiktag (1932; four nos. for various vocal and instrumental combinations). Some other composers, such as Darius Milhaud in France, Aaron Copland in the USA, and Kurt Weill and Carl Orff in Germany, have done similar work.