Gertrud Hindemith's Move
Whilst Hindemith completed his last courses in the spring of 1940 in the USA, began preparing himself for Tanglewood, regulated his publication problems with Associated Music Publishers, the New York representatives of Schott Publishers, heard about very successful performances of his works in the States and again found motivation and time for composition, Gertrud Hindemith's possibilities of travelling to the States worsened due to the tumultuous events connected with the war in Europe.
Her crossing from Genoa planned for late May 1940 came to nought because Italian ships were no longer departing for America. On the other hand, she did not want to take a chance on leaving Switzerland to look for travelling possibilities, because if she failed she would not be able to return to Switzerland. In addition, her American visa was only valid for four months and she was afraid of not finding any more travelling possibilities. An extension of a visa was only allowed in cases of firmly booked ship passages to the States; a place on one of these ships, already overfilled due to the events of the war, could only be obtained with a valid visa.
In this situation, a dreadful nightmare suffered by both Paul and Gertrud Hindemith, she decided to travel to the States via Lisbon. She left her household in Bluche, deposited Hindemith's manuscripts with Swiss friends and left Switzerland on 19 August. After an adventurous trip through Grenoble, Montpellier, Perpignan, Barcelona and Madrid, she arrived in Lisbon on 25 August. Hindemith travelled with her «in spirit,» as he wrote to her, «with fingers crossed until they were blue in the hopes that nothing bad would happen and everything would work out fine» with her, whilst he made such an impression at Tanglewood with his unusually strict, demanding composition teaching that Koussevitzky even wanted to pass on the entire direction of the summer academy to him.
Young composers such as Norman Dello Joio, Lukas Foss and Harold Shapero also followed Hindemith to Yale University after the summer. On 12 September 1940 Hindemith could finally receive his wife in New York; on 15 September they travelled to New Haven, moving into a house on 134 W. Elm Street on 22 September; they remained there until 1945.