Research on conflict-induced migration of composers

[Ilja]

Hi all,

I thought you might be interested in the research topic mentioned below.

Ilja
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Research on conflict-induced migration of artists

At Trinity College Dublin we are studying with Prof. John O'Hagan the impact of wars on forced emigration of classical composers born 1800-1950. It is an econometric analysis based on several countries that were the most relevant for classical music.

I am very interested in networking with researchers with related ongoing projects or similar research interests. Maybe somebody came across studies of conflict related emigration of creative individuals (artists, scientists etc.)?

Many thanks,
Karol

--
Karol Jan Borowiecki
Department of Economics
Room 3022, Arts Building
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2, Ireland

Office:  00353-1-8961083
Mobile: 00353-867943281
Webpage: http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/borowiek/

[JimL]

The obvious one would be Wagner, who had to flee, I believe it was Dresden in 1848 due to his participation in the unrest there.

[Paul Barasi]

Sounds like this research is tightly focussed: did the Dresden uprising actually escalate to war? Anyway, whilst I can hardly get my brain around anything right now, let alone access the memory, I hope we come up with some names and that we are alerted when the work is published. I also hope it will touch on some aspects of impact of relocation, not simply a head count.

[JimL]

I doubt it was an actual war, although maybe all of that revolutionary activity qualifies as civil war.  You know, I can't really think of any composers who had to flee their native lands due to war during the 19th Century.  Even Beethovenjust hid out in his cellar during Napoleon's siege of Vienna in 1809 rather than flee.  The 20th Century, on the other hand is an entirely different matter...

[Paul Barasi]

If they don't find any, the research report may resemble that book which went something like:

Chapter 18 - Elephants in Iceland

There are on elephants in Iceland.

Chapter 19

[Ilja]

I doubt it was an actual war, although maybe all of that revolutionary activity qualifies as civil war.  You know, I can't really think of any composers who had to flee their native lands due to war during the 19th Century.

I think both Litolff and Wagner qualify as a consequence of 1848. And I know there are a few Polish composers that exchanged sides of the German/Russian border.

[Alan Howe]

How about the case of Anglo-German composer Percy Sherwood (1866-1939) who made quite a name for himself before WW1 in Germany (he was appointed professor at the Dresden Conservatory in 1911)? After finding himself in London at the outbreak of war in 1914 - whether by accident or design is unclear - he continued to compose, but eventually sank into relative obscurity.

His music belongs to the broad German tradition, with Wagnerian overtones evident in his 3rd Symphony.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I take it you know Sherwood's 3rd Symphony, Alan. His MSS and papers are in the Bodleian Library, but I didn't know there had been any performances of his music in recent years. I'm intrigued.

[Alan Howe]

There haven't been any performances at all, Gareth - as far as I know. I have inspected the entire collection in the Bodleian (Sherwood was a pupil of Draeseke - hence my interest) and have a photocopy of the 3rd Symphony which I sent to Draeseke expert, Prof. Alan Krueck in the USA. It was he who gave me some idea of what the work might sound like.

[monafam]

Not really related -- but a lot of issues with African-American composers being "accepted" in Europe and then back to feeling the bigotry from some folks on their return to the US.

[JimL]

Well, now that I think of it, it does say "conflict" rather than "war" as the topic heading, so maybe Wagner and Litolff do qualify.  How about Sergei Bortkiewicz?  Didn't he have to leave Berlin because of WWI, only to settle in Vienna and suffer there through WWII?

[Hovite]

the impact of wars on forced emigration of classical composers born 1800-1950.

A great many composers born during that period were forced into exile as a result of war or revolution. Here are a few examples:

"He was out of sympathy with the government that replaced the immediate post-1918 republic in Hungary, where he was held in less official esteem than abroad, and moved in 1940 to the United States, dying there in relatively straitened circumstances in 1945."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Bela_Bartok_25970/25970.htm

"A steadfast pacifist, Britten left England in 1939 as war loomed over Europe. He spent four years in the United States and Canada"

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/2251.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

"After the Revolution of 1917, Glazunov, as director of a major national music school, worked hard, and with varying success, to protect his students from interference by a government which viewed music as an instrument of political propaganda. In addition, he felt isolated in a culture which rejected established musical traditions, and a general feeling of alienation finally prompted him to leave the Soviet Union in 1928. Glazunov's life in exile, which included an unsuccessful tour of the United States, was difficult but did not suppress his creative energy."

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/6257.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

"A near contemporary of Rachmaninov as a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Grechaninov similarly left Russia, living first in Paris and then in the United States of America. "

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Alexandr_Tikhonovich_Grechaninov/26079.htm 

"Attacked by the National Socialists, he left his native Germany in 1935, taking leave from the Berlin Musikhochschule, where he had served as professor of composition for some eight years."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Paul_Hindemith_23323/23323.htm

"In late 1937, he returned to Vienna in hope of premiering a new operatic work, but the growing Nazi influence over politics and art made it impossible for Korngold and his family (all of whom were Jewish) to remain."

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/5073.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

"Following the resounding success of his opera Juliette in Prague in 1938, World War II forced Martinů to flee his adopted home of Paris. After spending nine miserable months in the south of France, the composer and his wife made their way to Spain, and then to America, in the early months of 1941."

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/2964.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

"Unlike his friend Rachmaninoff, Medtner did not leave Russia until well after the Revolution."

http://www.medtner.org.uk/biography.html

"He abandoned his career as a musician for three years, from 1918 to 1921, when he held the positions of Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Poland, in continuation of his fight for Polish independence. This struggle he had resumed at the time of his death in 1940, during the course of a visit to the United States of America to arouse support for his cause."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski_25622/25622.htm

"The years immediately after the Revolution were spent in the U.S., where Prokofiev tried to follow Rachmaninov's lead and make his way as a pianist/composer."

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/3192.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

"Exile from his own country after the Communist Revolution of 1917 forced an increased concentration on performance, as one of the most distinguished pianists of the day, activity that enabled him to support his family but left less time for his work as a composer."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Sergei_Rachmaninov_21001/21001.htm

"Born in Vienna in 1874, he spent his early career in Berlin, until the rise to power of Hitler made it necessary to leave Germany and find safety in America, where he died in 1951."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Arnold_Schoenberg_21169/21169.htm 

"His relationship with the National Socialist government in Germany was at times ambiguous, a fact that protected him but led to post-war difficulties and self-imposed exile in Switzerland, from which he returned home to Bavaria only in the year of his death, 1949. "

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Richard_Strauss_26296/26296.htm 

"He spent the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in Western Europe and in 1939 moved to the United States of America."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Igor_Stravinsky_26297/26297.htm

"Wagner as a young man had some sympathy with the revolutionary movements of the middle nineteenth century; in the Dresden uprisings of 1849 he apparently took up arms, and he had to leave Germany when the police restored order. Settling in Zurich, Switzerland, he wrote little for some years"

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/3530.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about 

There were also fatalities:

"He and his wife set sail to Europe by way of England but while crossing the English Channel on board the Sussex, a German submarine torpedoed the ship and they both perished."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Enrique_Granados/26077.htm 

"He taught counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum and was killed at the beginning of the war of 1914 when he attempted to resist German attack on his house."

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/Alberic_Magnard/22121.htm

"After Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in World War II, he was arrested and imprisoned first in Prague and later in the Wulzburg camp, where he died of tuberculosis after about a one-year of imprisonment."

http://www.musica.cz/comp/schulhoff.htm

"After the Nazis came to power, Webern's work with the Vienna Workers' Chorus was ended, and four years later, his relationship with Austrian Radio was terminated. He composed three important choral works—the Cantatas Nos. 1, 2, and 3—in the period 1938-1944, and in 1940 he produced his orchestral composition Variations, Op. 30. Webern's death nearly a half year after the end of the war in Europe occurred in a freak incident in Mittersill (near Salzburg) when an American soldier mistakenly shot him while he was on an extended excursion to visit his daughter."

http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/3544.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about

[Borowiecki]

I am the author of the email sent to Ilja how started this topic. By chance I came very recently accross it and was surprised to see all the helpfull suggestion re my research. I thank you all for the valuable comments.

The related (final) research can be viewed on my website:  http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/borowiek/research.html.

Once again, thank you!
Karol