Michael Haas
When National Socialism arrived in Germany in 1933, Jews were dominating music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. The party's policy on music brought about a cultural holocaust, with far-reaching consequences for the history and development of music during the twentieth century. The conventioanl view is that the Third Reich's rejection of atonality was an act of anti-semitism. Yet although Jewish musicians and composers were responsible for countless original ideas applied to both the popular and serious music of the day, as well as becoming the experimenters who would represent the starting point of the century's most daring avant-garde, they were also by 1933 almost uniquely the principal conveyors of Germany's historic traditions and the ideals of German culture. The isolation, exile and persecution of Austro-German Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation. Michael Haas looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position between then and 1939 in Nazi Europe, at the forced emigration of composers and performers before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge, such as Britain and the United States and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment.
This
groundbreaking book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the
Third Reich and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth
century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal
conveyors of Germany’s historic traditions
Michael Haas is research director of the Jewish Music Institute for
Suppressed Music, SOAS, University of London.
Michael Haas
Traduit de l’anglais par Blandine Longre, avec le concours d’Elisabeth Willenz
pour les citations en allemand.
Éditeur : Notes De Nuit
Collection : La Beauté Du Geste
ISBN :
979-1-09317-619-2
Date de parution : 19/05/2022
Dimensions : : 460 page
15 x 3.3 x 22.5 cm
En 1933, quand Hitler arrive au pouvoir en Allemagne, le monde musical, davantage que tout autre, compte d'innombrables Juifs qui deviennent aussitôt une cible pour le régime national-socialiste. Michael Haas commence par dresser un panorama politico-historique de la situation paradoxale des Juifs dans les Etats germanophones depuis le XIXe siècle, replaçant la progression de l'antisémitisme austro-allemand dans un contexte musical où l'assimilation juive se trouve rapidement confrontée à des attaques virulentes, notamment de la part de Richard Wagner. Après une période de créativité intense jusqu'aux années 1930, les compositeurs juifs, mais aussi les interprètes, les chefs d'orchestre, les critiques ou les éditeurs de musique, sont impitoyablement persécutés par les nazis, et ceux qui ne trouvent pas refuge dans l'exil connaîtront un sort tragique. Dans cet ouvrage foisonnant, l'auteur s'efforce de réhabiliter des musiciens et des œuvres trop longtemps abandonnés à l'oubli.