Music in the Holocaust

Music in the Holocaust by Joshua Jacobson tht) /' 5, I. , Cover page of '~l Sefod" by Pavel Haas (Translation: '~S01lveni1' ofo1lrfirst and last anniversary in Terezin 'j I consider it a very strange phenomenon that under these heir to humanity, however, the Nazis would have to demon horrible circumstances were created such magnificent works. strate that all other races were inferior. Any human activity that . It's amazing that people are able to create such beauty was not Aryan had to be proven degenerate . while surrounded by such atrocities. I In the 1920s, Germany was licking its wounds. The Reich Elislea Kleinova, sltl7Jivor ofthe Terezfn concentration camp suffered an ignominious defeat in the First World War. After a European reaction against German Romanticism in the arts, For Jews trapped in Europe during the Nazi Holocaust, Paris replaced Berlin and Vienna as the musical and artistic music was a means of expressing pain and anguish, of sustain capital of the world. In the eyes of Germany, this situation had ing hope, and of maintaining their humanity. For some, after to be rectified; the German people demanded a restoration to the war, music was the medium through which they could vent their former position of world hegemony. their feelings of horror, outrage, grief, and mourning. The Nazis waged political and cultural war not only against This article explores some of the musical phenomena that their neighbors in Europe but also against foreign elements arose out of the experience of the Holocaust. The creators of within the countty that had "perverted" the pure German most of these poems and songs were murdered by the Nazis culture. Early in the century, the Jewish-born German com and their collaborators, but their music lives on. poser Arnold Schoenberg had introduced dodecaphonic mod ernism into German music and, as a teacher in the conservatory, Nazi Policy toward Music was passing this "degenerate and unpopular" musical style to The Nazis had a utopian dream: they would start the hu the next generation. The Jewish composer Kurt Weill was man race over again. After purging humanity of all imperfect introducing the strains of "degenerate" Mrican-American jazz specimens, they would repopulate the world with a race of into German opera and operetta with such works as The Three supermen. It was the exclusive prerogative of the Nazi elite to Penny Opera. In October 1925 the following statement by define who was perfect and who was subhuman. The achieve respected musicologist Alfred Heuss appeared in the Berlin ments of the Atyan race in all spheres of human activity from magazine Zeitschrijt fiir Musik: warfare through music were seen as proof that it deserved to rule the world. If the Aryan race were to be the sole legitimate The appointment of Arnold Schonberg [sic] as director of one of the three masterclasses for composition at the Prussian Joshua Jacobson is Professor of Music, the Stotsky Professor of Academy of the Arts in Berlin strikes a blow against the Jewish Studies, and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern cause of German music that is so provocative in nature it University, Boston, Massachusetts. He also is the founder and would be difficult to imagine anything worse in the present director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, artists-in-residence at situation .... [This is] a contest of strength between Hebrew College's Jewish Music Institute, Brooldine, Massachusetts. Germandom and-and now we must also be quite frank- the specifically Jewish spirit in music. 2 DECEMBER 1995 PAGE 9 CHOIR Heuss was not voicing a new opinion. no person who had grown up in a Jewish un~JI1 MASTER Most Germans considered the Jews living environment would be capable of under 2.0 1iiIJfu among them to be a foreign element. Even standing the cultural heritage of Chris SOFTWARE after the emancipation at the end of the tian Europe. $185 Database software for eighteenth century, when civil rights were Upgrade $120 choral directors and (plus shipping & lax) librarians extended to the Jewish population for the The Jew talks the modern European first time, those who left the ghetto and languages merely as learned, and not MUSIC MASTER SOFTWARE attempted to participate in the cultural as mother tongues. This must 4 Grandview Avenue. Toronto, Ontario. Canada M4K 1J2 Tel (416) 465-8392 or (416) 816-4422 life of Germany were viewed with great necessarily prevent him from all Fax (416) 465-5107 suspicion. The composer Carl Friedrich capability of therein expressing him Zelter said about his pupil Felix Men self idiomatically, independently, delssohn, "He is, to be sure, a Jewboy and comfortably to his nature. Our (Judensohn) but no Jew. It would really whole European art and civilization be something rare if a Jewboy were to have remained to the Jew a foreign become a true artist."3 Mendelssohn was tongue. [Synagogue music is] denied appointment as head of the Berlin the travesty of a divine service in Singakademie on the basis that "an orga music. Who has not been nization dedicated to the singing of seized with a feeling of the greatest church music could hardly be presided revulsion or horror mingled with over by a Jew, even a converted one.,,4 absurdity at hearing that senseless Richard Wagner brought cultural in and irritating gurgle, yodel, and tolerance out into the open with the pub caclde which no caricature could lication of his article "Das Judentum in malce more repugnant?6 Music" in the Neue ZeitschriJt for Musik in September 1850.5 Wagner believed that The source of Wagner's anti-Semitism stemmed from the failure of his operas in Paris and the success of the less sophisti cated works of Meyerbeer, Halevy, and Offenbach. The operas of the Jewish com poser Meyerbeer were so successful that he You Don't Have to had become one of the wealthiest men in Europe. In Wagner's paranoid fantasy, Jews seemed to be dominating the middle class opera.., theater-, and concert-going Die to go to Heaven. public. Jews were conductors, determin ing what music would be programmed. If there's a heaven on earth for choral conductors, this is it: Jews were music critics, influencing public opinion through newspaper reviews. + Conduct our world-class choir, orchestra, and soloists in concert. Wagner complained that Jews were "in nately incapable" of presenting themselves Study the J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio in depth. + as artists because of their appearance, • Immerse yourself in a community of dedicated artists. speech, and, particularly, their singing. Yet they had been able to affect public taste + Experience two weeks of virtuoso performers and concerts. significantly throughout the art world, especially in music.? + Be inspired by conductor and master teacher Helmuth Rilling, Wagner saw two possible solutions to acknowledged as one of the world's foremost Bach conductors. the problem: [In view of the] influence over our Just Call800/4S7-1486. intellectual life which the Jews have acquired [which found expression OREGON BACH FESTIVAL in the] decay of our culture, [only Master Class in Choral/Orchestral Conducting two paths are open. One is the] Helmuth Rilling, Artistic Director total ejection of the destructive June 21-July 6, 1996 foreign element, [the other is the Eugene, Oregon assimilation of this element] in such a way that, in common with us, PAGE 10 CHORAL JOURNAL Choral directors· & it shall ripen toward a higher radio programmers, distributors of sheet critics agree that Dr. Ebensberger's evolution of our nobler human music and records, and musicians plan ensemble coupled qualities. [I do not lmow whether ning repertoire for public concerts-any with the extraordi the first alternative is practicable,] one who had to conform to the ban on narily natural for this would require forces whose Jewish music. Wagner's essay of 1850 ~~;~~~~I~~~:=I"Q sound reprQduc~ presence are unlmown to me. 8 was brought up-to-date with Richard tion from EPR's Eichenauer's book Musik und Rasse (Mu newest .Gold.CD proVide an exciting listening experience. English c:horal Eighty years later Adolf Hider wrote, sic and Race,) II and Karl Blessinger's Men music Of the 19th & 20th centuries "I have the most intimate familiarity with delssohn, Meyerbeer und Mahler: Drei at it's best.. Available for $14.95 plus ship Wagner's mental processes. At every stage Kapitel des Judentums in der Musik (Three pingfr;'ni: .Encore Performance Recordings, 1613 of my life I come back to him."9 The Chapters ofJudaism in Music).12 Duke Ct., 'Plano,TX 75093, Ph/Fax 214-596-4433 Nazis carried out Wagner's theories in a way that had never been done before. Arnold Schoenberg and The state exercised total control over mu Jewish Identity sical composition and performance. Jo Arnold Schoenberg had renounced his seph Goebbels, as Minister for the People's Judaism in 1892 at the age of eighteen. Enlightenment and Propaganda, was de The young man found that he could find termined to eliminate alien influences on employment in conducting and teaching German music. Thus, Jews were purged more easily by converting to Protestant from their positions as music teachers, ism. In 1921 a disturbing incident gave performers, composers, and scholars. Schoenberg cause to reconsider his iden In 1933, Richard Strauss was named tity. When he took his family for a sum the first president of the National Minis mer vacation at the lakeside resort of try of Music, and Wilhelm Furtwangler Mattsee, he was turned away and in 6th Edition was named his deputy. The ministry in formed that the area was restricted to Ary Edited by Stanley Sadie troduced a succession of policies aimed at ans.

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