German Music Folder

[shamokin88]

Music and the Nazis.

This, of course applies to various Austrians and Czechs as well, let me suggest those who lived in Germany as it was, geographically, up to the outbreak of the war in 1939. Two pieces - at least - seem to be under a ban.

First, Franz Schmidt's final, uncompleted work, taken in hand and finished by Franz Anton Wolpert, German Resurrection or Deutsche Aufferstehung if my high school German of a half century back serves. This was a big choral/vocal work in praise of the Anschluss. I cringe at the thought of the text and do not believe that it has been heard in seventy years. It was Schmidt's effort to ingratiate himself with the new regime.

Close to the end of the war Hans Pfitzner composed a short orchestral piece dedicated to Hans Frank, the
top Nazi in the so-called Gouvernement General in Poland. It was entitled Krakauer Begrüssung and sufficiently rose his publisher's postwar hackles so that the opus number Pfitzner assigned to it was used instead in their catalogue for a new version of Das Christeleflein. No mention of the Frank opus. This same Pfitzner turned down a commission to compose new music for Midsummer Night's Dream because, in his judgment, the Mendelssohn could not possibly be improved upon. His refusal raised different hackles. 

I make no claim that these were "popular" pieces in the Third Reich - far from it, I expect. But they are both so tainted that they have not been heard in 67 years, minimum. Perhaps they could be presented with the Funeral March for Hitler that Robert Stoltz thoughtfully composed just before he left?

Edvin Komauer and Walter Abendroth - not Hermann - enjoyed official patronage.

Graener's situation was peculiar, too, for his inability to document fully his Aryan descent, costing him a teaching job.

Fidelio Finke was a Sudeten German who had to leave home after the war yet was given his only recordings by the DDR's Eterna label. Who knows?

And Kaminski was banned for a while but was eventually deemed sufficiently Aryan so that his music could be heard after all, just not for NSDAP events. How satisfying could that have been?

My guess is that we must consider each person trapped in those circumstances individually and ask ourselves what might we have done if faced with the pressures and the temptations they experienced.

It is curious that Fascism, whether in Germany or elsewhere, failed to generate the sort of musical treasures that bear Stalin's name, nothing for Salazar, nothing for Franco, nothing for Mussolini or the lesser fry - just Evita !

Best to all. 

   

[jerfilm]

Interesting and thoughtful summary, Edward.  Thanks.

Jerry

[eschiss1]

I wouldn't argue otherwise and am greatly interested in the music of quite a few of these composers for what my personal opinion is worth. (Hessenberg may not or not quite ... ?? ... belong in the list but I am -definitely- interested in his muse, his middle string quartets (e.g. no.4 in E minor/A minor op.60) and somewhat similar works (cello sonata in C op.23, string quartet no.3 in A, ...) especially- and thanks again for the upload of his most intriguing string trio op.48 ...)

As to Mussolini, I've found it interesting that Montemezzi was killed by Italian resistance partisans (if I recall) - so someone thought that the composer of a cult favorite opera (Amore di tre re) of the 20th century had suspect political leanings, at least...

[eschiss1]

Someone wanting to track popularity might also want to have a look at the war-straitened 1940s issues of Hofmeisters Monatsberichte (for instance), too...

Speaking of Trapp and Butting - already downloaded many of the Butting works now here but Trapp's cello concerto and 6th symphony are two of the works that I fear I do wish to ask the happily returned Arbuckle if he'd be willing to reupload (the whole Butting/Trapp folder he uploaded November 8 2011 ) Thanks!

(Fortunately for me- though I'd rather have chosen the means and reason myself - I no longer have the same space issues with my iPod)

[BFerrell]

Italo Montemezzi? He died long after the war ended. Where did you see that he was shot?

[Arbuckle]

Have reposted the Butting and Trapp things, Eric. Good listening!

[eschiss1]

Thanks!

[eschiss1]

BTW about Trapp's 2nd symphony, the same conductor and orchestra - Hermann Abendroth/Berlin Philharmonic - are mentioned as performing? having performed? (the former I'm fairly sure) the work in a new edition (einer Neufassung) in the June/July 1943 issue of Musik im Kriege, page 65. (The whole issue as scanned at archive.org (may only be visible in the US and similar. PDF and other formats. Excerpt of the relevant passage, from a briefish article on Berlin concerts by Herbert Gerigk:

Die 2. Sinfonie von Max Trapp kam unter Hermann Abendroth mit den Berliner Philharmonikern in einer Neufassung heraus, die vor allem eine Vereinfachung der ursprünglichen Riesenbesetzung enthält.

[britishcomposer]

I have now uploaded the remaining Raff Suites in Albert's recordings with the Philharmonia Hungarica from the 1990s. Enjoy! 

[Mark Thomas]

I feel as if my birthday has arrived a week early. Thank you so much!

[britishcomposer]

You are welcome, Mark! Perhaps this lifts your black mood a bit! 

I am afraid that's all I have from the glorious couple Raff-Albert.

Sorry for uploading unsplit files. It took me a whole year to digitise all my old cassette tapes and it would take me another year to split everything properly... 

[Mark Thomas]

Yes my black mood of yesterday is now quite dissolved, thanks! I'm away from home for a few weeks, but when I get home I'm very happy to split these suites into separate movements if you'd like me to.

[britishcomposer]

You need not do it especially for me but I was concerned because most UC members prefer split files.

[Mark Thomas]

It'll be a few weeks before I can do anything anyway...

[isokani]

Re: Trunk, et al., it's a very interesting question about whether we should honour this music even by listening to it today. Given that a good deal of Trunk's music was written pre-Nazi era (I'm just downloading the Piano Quintet, for example), I think it's slightly presumptious for people to "ban" it on the grounds of what he signed up to later. The same, after all, would go for Prokofiev who, if I'm not mistaken, wrote a piece in honour of Stalin, no less a monster than Hitler. But it's rather easier for "history" to condemn lesser composers than greater ones whose music, quite obviously, it would be more costly to discard on the grounds of political/historical importunity. Well, I'm going to give it a listen ...