The work of Paul Hindemith is encyclopedic in nature. From the outset, he worked in all musical genres and devised several of his musical ideas and projects not as individual, self-contained works but as work cycles with different functional relationships. These contrasting pieces complement each other if experienced as part of the overall structure. Hindemith himself not only wanted a complete edition of his collected works but had begun planning it; at his death he left a detailed list of ‚Unpublished pieces for an eventual complete edition‘. The Complete Works contain all finished works in all extant versions, newly engraved for the edition. Sketches and fragments are published in appendices of the relevant volume, and are evaluated in the Introduction and Critical Commentary by the respective volume editor. Each volume contains a preface by the editorial directors and an introduction by the volume editor, delineating the genesis and performance history of the work, with authentic performance instructions, an evaluation of extant recordings by Paul Hindemith himself and a Critical Commentary. The Complete Works of Paul Hindemith are thus presented in a critical, scholarly edition which is equally appropriate for study and performance. Hindemith researchers will welcome the numerous first publications of works by the composer, and practical musicians will appreciate the newly prepared, philologically ordered performance material.