RE: Music and the Holocaust

[yoel epstein <yoel...>]

I don't know if this response is really relevant, but my string quartet is 
working on the second string quartet by Pavel Haas.  Haas spent three years in 
Theresienstadt before being gassed; this quartet was written before Terezin.

We play the quartet not because Haas was one of the Terezin composers, but 
because we like it.  If we every perform it (which I doubt because it's really 
hard), I hope it will not be at a concert in commemoration of the Holocaust, 
but at an ordinary concert together with music by Beethoven and Mozart.  And 
this, I believe, is the truest tribute we can pay to Haas, Schulhoff, Kremer 
and others: to play them for the greatness of their music, and not for the 
special circumstances of their death.

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From:  Jennifer R. Goodman[SMTP:jenifer (at) unix(dot)tamu(dot)edu]
Sent:  éåí ùðé 07 àôøéì 1997 19:04
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject:  Re:Music and the Holocaust

In the wake of the latest discussions on the list, I have
a question for you all.

I'm just recovering from the first big gig of "Di Heyse Dray"
and "The King's Yiddish," the two new bands I'm mixed up in.
We played an evening program for the Texas A&M conference,
"Unexpected Encounters with the Holocaust," organized by
my colleagues Joy Sylvester and Olga Cooke of the Modern and
Classical Languages Department. ('S iz gevezn a mechaye; it
was a wonderful conference, especially for the arts. Luckily
there will be a volume of proceedings. I am lobbying for
music to be included, because besides our concert there was an
awesome performance of O. Messaien's Quartet for the End of
Time by an ensemble of faculty members from Sam Houston State
University, and Nick Strimple of La Vie in LA didn't get a chance to
play the Terezin music he brought to go with his elegant paper.)

So, now I am curious to hear your ideas about how musicians today
are finding ways to cope with the Holocaust. It took me a long
time to come up with an approach. What ideas, suggestions, and
thoughts do you all have? This is a responsibility for our
generation of musicians, especially for those of us who are
also Jewish cultural activists of some kind.

Many thanks for your thoughts! A sheynem dank!

Jenny Goodman
Department of English
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4227
jenifer (at) unix(dot)tamu(dot)edu