ABSTRACT
The first movement of Paul Hindemith’s String Quartet in E-flat begins with the melodic theme shown on the upper staff in Example 2.1. This melody moves from E, the main key of the quartet, to its dominant, B, in m. 4. The melody itself, however, incorporates a number of pitches not usually associated with the key of E including B, C , D , and F . The second excerpt is an octave transposition of the first in which several of the notes have been respelled. These respelled notes change the diatonic intervals in the passage, but do not affect our recognition of the theme. Spelling is therefore of little consequence because the tendencies usually associated with tonal harmony are downplayed.
