PAUL HINDEMITH born into a poor family, Paul Hindemith began his musical studies with the encouragement of his father at the age of twelve. Between 1908 and 1917 he studied violin and composition at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and in 1915 he joined the orchestra of the Frankfurt Opera as leader, staying there until 1923. Following the death of his father in 1915 he earned extra money by teaching and playing in cinemas and inns, an experience which engendered the utilitarian approach to music which he retained all his life. Hindemith also played the viola in the string quartet of his teacher Adolf Rebner, and from 1921 to 1929 in the Amar-Hindemith Quartet. While with the Frankfurt Opera he attracted the attention of the conductor Fritz Busch, who was looking for new composers and conducted two short expressionist operas by Hindemith at Stuttgart in 1921.