"Music as Political Tool in the Service of the Reich"

[pynchonoid]

Music as Political Tool in the Service of the Reich
By ALAN RIDING

[...] The music here constantly disturbs. Recordings
of "Das Rheingold" and "Götterdämmerung" made in 1933
seem to trumpet Wagner's status as Hitler's favorite
composer (although Bruckner, too, was singled out for
praise in "Mein Kampf"). And why, one is tempted to
ask, is Hitler's much-loved "Meistersinger von
Nürnberg" being sung with such gusto under Karajan's
baton in 1951? (An original score of this opera is
also in the show.)

Hitler evidently appreciated Wagner's anti-Semitism,
expressed most blatantly in his notorious 1850
pamphlet, "Judaism in Music." But perhaps more
important, Wagner's operas gave voice to Hitler's
Romantic identity with an ancient, mystical and
eternal Germany. Appropriately, the bronze bust of
Wagner on display here is by Hitler's court sculptor,
Arno Breker. [...]

But the focus of "The Third Reich and Music" is far
broader than the regime's exploitation of Germany's
classical greats. Through scores, recordings and
paintings, including Schoenberg's portraits of Mahler
and Zemlinsky, it covers the pre-Nazi burst of musical
innovation. But even before coming to power in January
1933, the Nazis were criticizing avant-garde music.
Already in 1927, they attacked Ernst Krenek's lively
jazz opera, "Jonny Spielt Auf."

One document - Schoenberg's letter, witnessed by Marc
Chagall, announcing his reconversion to Judaism in
July 1933 - underlines how it was apparent by then
that the world had changed. Schoenberg himself chose
exile, as did other composers like Krenek, Zemlinsky
and Paul Hindemith, conductors like Otto Klemperer and
Bruno Walter, even the great tenor Richard Tauber. The
"Degenerate Music" exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1938
was almost a formality.

Among prominent musicians who stayed were the
composers Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, Carl Orff
and Werner Egk, as well as the conductors Furtwängler,
Karajan and Hans Knappertsbusch. All worked under the
Nazis and were able to resume their careers after the
war, with only Furtwängler singled out for
de-Nazification.

Strauss's relationship with the regime was ambivalent.
He was forced to resign as president of the Reich's
Chamber of Music in 1935 after he protested the
hounding of Hindemith and collaborated with Zweig. But
he remained one of Hitler's preferred composers. He
also conducted his "Hymn" at the opening of the Berlin
Olympics in 1936, while several of his greatest
operas, including "Arabella" and "Capriccio," were
first performed between 1933 and 1945.

A far darker fate awaited Jewish musicians who did not
escape Germany, Austria or occupied countries. Many
were sent to concentration camps where, if not
immediately killed, they were encouraged to form
chamber orchestras, some of which were infamously
ordered to play outside gas chambers. One photograph
in this exhibition shows a prisoner, Hans Bonarewitz,
being escorted to his death at Mauthausen in the
company of other prisoners playing violins.

No less perversely, beginning in 1941 the Nazis
gathered many musicians at Theresienstadt outside
Prague, which the regime proclaimed a model camp.
Orchestras, quartets and choirs were formed, small
operas were produced, and works were composed. Then,
after the Nazis made a propaganda film of
Theresienstadt's musical life in 1944, the composers
Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas and Hans
Krasa were sent to die in Auschwitz. (Excerpts from
works by Ullmann and Krasa can be heard in the show.)
[...] 

...read it all:
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/25/arts/music/25thir.html

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