Re: MAX concert in Munich Jewish Festival, Nov 17

[Spudicmikhl <Spudicmikhl...>]

In a message dated 11/1/2001 6:41:34 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
Elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU writes:


> "I don't know enough about Orff's politics, but for him to claim he was a 
> member of the "White Rose" resistance movement was certainly a whopper. 
> It's doubtful anyone who resisted the Nazis would remain under their 
> employ--or alive. Just look at the case of church composer Hugo Distler, 
> who was associated with the Bonhoffer (and Dohnanyi) Lutheran resistance 
> crowd. The Nazis effectively killed the Lutheran resistance movement  ca. 
> 1937-38.  Distler had to leave his church job after--if I recall 
> correctly--his church was closed and the leading Resistance clergy arrested 
> (and killed). Eventually Distler would kill himself ca. 1942, after 
> considerable Nazi party harassment that inevitably recruited him as a tank 
> commander . (This is all to the best of my recollection; it's been a few 
> years.) "         From Elliot Kahn's last response to the list.
> 

       With further adherence to the topic initiated by a klezmer gig in 
Munich and all the sparks set forth therewith, let me take a moment at the 
outset to wish Lori Lippitz and ensemble a great concert on November 17th, 
wish I could be there!  

       Now if I may suggest a further trope on all the interesting 
information offered above.  Much food for thought can be found in another 
study by an author mentioned earlier by Lee Friedman.  My reference is to 
"The Twisted Muse - Musicans and Their Music in the Third Reich" by Michael 
H. Kater (Oxford, 1997).  Kater presents a tremendous amount of detail 
concerning German musical luminaries, such as Orff and Distler.  They and a 
host of other mainstream musical figures are presented against a Nazi German 
backdrop.  Kater poses crucial questions concerning the intersect between 
music and politics, culture and ideology.  

       He is not so kindly disposed towards Distler, pointing out that when 
he committed suicide in 1942, the "Zeitschrift fuer Musik" (as music history 
buffs will recall, founded by Robert Schumann, but in 1942, ideologically 
suffering in Nazi hands as a propaganda organ) referred to Distler as "a 
strong talent," deplored his loss, and as Kater further points out "the 
Hitler Youth Thomaner-Chor of Leipzig sang his hymns in his memory."  Perhaps 
this might be considered circumstancial evidence that does not persuade one 
way or the other.  However, I find Kater convincing in his conclusion that 
"Distler may have been crushed between the demands of the Nazi state and 
loyalty to his Protestant faith, for he could not serve both."

        Furthermore, Kater spends several pages discussing the complex 
situation of Carl Orff,  chastising that as he was "extremely conscious of 
his need to conceal his partly Jewish ancestry from the authorites, ... had 
already decided to accomodate himself to a regime that at heart he detested." 
  Kater further explores  Orff as a composer rooted in Bavarian soil to such 
a degree that he refused an opportunity to leave Germany as late as 1938.  An 
offer to assist him to leave Nazi Germany was made by a student of his, 
Newell Jenkins, who had important connections in the United States.  I tend 
to agree with Michael Kater, that if Orff were so "democratic-minded," 
(intended "Gebrauchsmusik" spoon-fed to the often gullible ears of a post-war 
American military government that gave a pass to the likes of a Herbert von 
Karajan) he would have either chosen a path of "inner emigration" or voted 
with his feet and left Germany altogether.  He chose to do neither.  Meaning 
he chose to remain artistically relevant within the deviant political 
constraints of national socialism.  

       Undoubtedly, we remain at an impasse, heralding Orff's artistic 
relevance while I think importantly spotlighting the way this creative genius 
subsumed himself politically into the Nazi German maelstrom.  I am reminded 
of another Bavarian, the writer Oskar Maria Graf, someone who openly 
criticized the Nazis from the start, and paid for this with early banishment 
from Germany, already in 1933, and this due to Graf's response to the 
infamous "Book Burning."  Graf sent a letter of protest to a German 
newspaper, a letter that was reprinted innumerable times around the world and 
even encapsulated in a poem by Bertolt Brecht (see "Verbrennt Mich!" 
reprinted in "An Manchen Tagen - Reden, Gedanken und Zeitbetrachtungen, 
Frankfurt am Main, Nest Verlag, 1961) .  Graf bravely challenged the Nazis in 
his open letter, referring to "barbaric national socialism;" speaking of the 
(here a rough paraphrase of the German) "inextinguishable German spirit, that 
will remain as eternally immutable as the shame that will henceforth mark the 
deranged souls of these bands of murderers who burn books."  As opposed to 
Orff's choice to remain politically silent, it is not surprising that 
opinionated Graf, just as steeped and rooted in Bavaria,  paid the price for 
his political impertinence.  No doubt, as a result of his contentious but 
more ethically principled stance, Graf wound up in American exile, alienated 
from the land of his artistic roots to the end of his life.  

       In conclusion, all I mean to suggest are the painful choices an artist 
must face when creating in an imperfect or indeed evil society.  What 
response: migration? "inner migration?" cooperation? coexistence?  When it 
comes to political responsibility and the artist, that "coat of arms" on a 
Carl Orff will remain an imperfect fit.  Especially when I am reminded of 
people like Oskar Maria Graf, it makes it even harder to give such an easy 
pass to the creator of "Carmina Burana," great composer and pedagogue that he 
may have been.