Shostakovich

[Dan Kazez <kazez...>]

Can non-Jews compose "Jewish music"?  And... why would they?  Here are 
some details behind Shostakovich's composing of "Jewish musicS:  

Dmitri Shostakovich composed the song cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry" in 
1948, at a time when a new wave of anti-Semitism, unprecedented in its 
brutality, overtook the Soviet Union.  Day after day the newspapers 
printed "exposing" articles about people who were to blame for the 
increasingly miserable state of the nation; these people allegedly 
stole, gave bribes, speculated, etc.  All of them, by some coincidence, 
had Jewish names.  The articles were accompanied by caricatures of these 
abominable people--every one of whom had a long, crooked nose.  The 
forgotten word "cosmopolite" was dragged to light, once having had a 
noble meaning--"citizen of the world"--but now used as a euphemism for 
"damned Jews" who were described in the newspapers and at official 
meetings as "people without a homeland and without race."

A campaign to decipher the pseudonyms of writers was undertaken, since 
sometimes the real Jewish name of a writer was long forgotten due to his 
Russian-sounding nom de plume, making the witch hunt more difficult.  
People were fired from work for "concealment of one's true nationality."

This anti-Semitic hysteria culminated in the so-called "Doctors' Plot," 
when many leading physicians were accused of planning to murder Stalin, 
as well as the Soviet hierarchy.  The possibility of a mass 
extermination of the entire Jewish population almost became a reality, 
and was only prevented it seems by the death of Stalin.

It was exactly this social and political climate that Shostakovich, a 
Russian, composed his Jewish cycle, at a time when the mere word "Jew" 
sounded like a curse.  Why?  This is what we read in Testimony:  The 
Memoirs of D. Shostakovich:

   Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me...
   It can appear to be happy while it is tragic.  It's almost 
   always laughter through tears.  This quality of Jewish folk music 
   is close to my ideas of what music should be.  There should always 
   be two layers in music.  Jews were tormented for so long that they 
   learned to hide their despair.  They express despair in dance 
   music.  It seemed to me that...I would be able to tell about the 
   fate of the Jewish people.  It seemed an important thing to do, 
   because I could see anti-Semitism growing all around me.  

Obviously Shostakovich could not even imagine that this work would be 
performed publicly.  But as he continues in Testimony:

   Many of my works reflected my impression of Jewish music.  This is 
   not purely a musical issue, ths is also a moral issue.  I often 
   test a person by his attitude toward Jews (...)  Later I broke 
   with even good friends if I saw that they had any anti-Semantic 
   tendencies.

Food for thought!!

Dan Kazez

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    1995-96 CONCERTS:  Prague, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Paris, Salzburg, 
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    Daniel Kazez / Associate Professor of Music
    Wittenberg University / Springfield, Ohio 45501
    kazez (at) wittenberg(dot)edu / tel:  513-327-7354 / fax:  513-327-6340