Kurt Weill and German Support of Jewish Music

[JeffSchan <JeffSchan...>]

     Last night I went to see Kurt Weill's "The Eternal Road"
     at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  It was tremendous. 
     The main problem was that it was too long (3-1/2 hours
     with intermission).  However, I recommend that anyone in
     the vicinity of New York come to see it.  For those who
     haven't read about it in the NY Times, the basic setting
     is a diverse group of Jews hiding from something of a
     pogrom in a local shul.  While they wait of news of their
     fate, the Rabbi tells tales of the Bible.  I hope we can
     have some discussion the piece in its own right, but at
     the moment, I want to discuss some aspects of the produc-
     tion which coincide with the discussion on Germans and
     Klezmer.
     
     Most of the musicians in this performance were German
     non-Jews, and much of the impetus came from the Chemnitz
     Opera, although the conductor and prime artistic mover in
     this is American.  Certainly Weill is a very different
     kettle of fish than Klezmer.  There were plenty of Jewish
     references in the score, but probably even more to the
     classics of German art music - both non-Jewish and Jew-
     ish, so it was not that much of a stretch for non-Jews to
     perform.  I felt nothing but respect for the performers.
     
     However, I was pretty annoyed by having the Deutsche Bank
     logo smack me right in the face as I entered the BAM
     lobby (they were the main corporate sponsors).  For those
     of you who don't know me, I am both a child of survivors
     and a communist.  So, yes, this is partially a knee-jerk
     reaction.  However, it's a bit more than that as well. 
     When and where the German authorities will support Jewish
     music has very little to do with Jewish music and a lot
     to do with refurbishing their image - and much of the
     German industrial bourgeoisie has survived from before
     and through the Nazi era.
     
     One case in point:  this is being done as part of the
     centenary of Weill's birth.  1998 was the centenary of
     another great German-Jewish emigre composer - Hans
     Eisler.  Eisler was also a collaborator of Brecht, and
     although he wrote what we consider "art" music, he also
     wrote several of the anthems of the German working class
     ("Solidarity Song" and "Song of the United Front").  He
     left Germany around 1933, the same as Weill, and ended up
     in the US, doing film scores in Hollywood.  Unlike Weill,
     he lived into the 1950's and the McCarthy witchhunts and
     was deported from the US.  He returned to East Germany
     and wrote the East German national anthem.  However, as a
     modernist, he ran afoul of the Stalinist gospel of
     Socialist Realism and was apparently quite miserable
     until the end of his life.  I don't know if much was done
     in Germany, but certainly the bankers, industrialists and
     politicians of the Fourth Reich did not pour millions of
     marks into commemorating Eisler's centenary - they are
     too busy trying to revile and demonize anything associat-
     ed with the former East Germany.
     
     On a more personal note, since my father's death in 1992,
     I have written a fair amount of music dealing with the
     Holocaust and my family's history.  Any submissions I
     have made to German venues have been met with deafening
     silence.  A German (non-Jewish) composer and producer who
     brought my wife and I over for a performance in the early
     90s (we have an improvisational duo) later told me that
     he had wanted to do a series of music dealing with the
     Holocaust for a long time, but that it was impossible to
     raise the funds for it.
     
     Up until now, I haven't commented on the Germans &
     Klezmer discussion, mainly because I am not very knowl-
     edgeable about the topic.  My parents didn't play klezmer
     music in the house, so I do not have the same emotional
     attachment to it that many of you do.  However, while I
     understand Wolf's and others' attitudes towards Germans,
     I do not share them.  I do not believe in the collective
     guilt of the German people.  When I was young, and asked
     what made the Nazis so evil, my parents told me that the
     Nazis believed that all Jews were bad, and that it was
     wrong to think that everyone in any nationality, religion
     etc. were bad, and that included Germans.  Certainly a
     simplistic explanation (I was 7 or 8 at the time), but
     rather a profound one.  So today, as in the 30's, there
     are German fascists and German anti-fascists.  I am less
     concerned with a modern German's attitude towards Jewish
     culture than whether or not they are fighting against the
     same forces that led to the Holocaust in the first place. 
     I would be more than happy to have my music heard by, and
     hopefully inspire, those Germans who are actively fight-
     ing fascism.
     
     However, while holding few illusions in why the Germans
     sometimes support Jewish music, I am glad to have had the
     opportunity to hear a piece by a great Jewish composer
     which has not been performed in over 60 years.  The
     production will move to Krakow and Israel and Hannover in
     the coming year, and I recommend it to all.
     
     Jeffrey Schanzer

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