Re: Pre WWII Jewish Music

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

With all due respects, Jeffrey, I believe you have it backwards. I do not know 
the circumstances of Kurt Weill leaving Germany, I do know, however, that "The 
Eternal Road" was a commissioned work, with a text by Franz Werfel and stage 
direction by Max Reinhardt that premiered in New York in 1937. This work does 
employ Jewish motives, as you once eloquently pointed out.

I am a great fan of Kurt Weill's music, but throughout his life he had very 
little interest in creating distinctly "Jewish music." It might have been 
because his father was a cantor and the son had little interest in it. Other 
than The Eternal Road, Weill set two or three songs of the Chalutzim ca. 1939, 
and then wrote a Kiddush for the Park Avenue Synagogue ca. 1948. It's a lovely 
piece, with a beautiful accentuation of the Hebrew text. Of course, it's pure 
Weill: bluesy, melodic, with a trace of musical theatre.

On the other hand, Arnold Schoenberg, throughout his life did consciously try 
to create "Jewish music." Such works as his unfinished opera "Moses und Aron," 
his "Kol Nidrei," "Survivor from Warsaw," and a late setting of Psalm 130 (De 
Profundis= Mi Mamakim) indicate this.

Schoenberg was exposed to much antisemitism as an Austrian soldier in World War 
I. This and many other incidents were the inspiration for his libretto for "Der 
Biblische Weg" (The Way or Path of the Bible), which eventually became the 
opera "Moses und Aron." 

After Schoenberg was fired from his teaching post in 1933 by the new Nazi 
government, he set about on an international letter writing campaign to try and 
organize Jews against what he saw as a brutal, coming danger--even writing to 
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. Sadly, few people listened to the words of a true 
prophet. For an in depth discussion of this, please see Alexander Ringer's 
"Arnold Schoenberg: the Composer as Jew," Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

Schoenberg reconverted to Judaism in Paris, after leaving Germany in 1933. 
(Marc Chagall actually signed as his witness.) 

I really do not believe that Kurt Weill and his cabaret friends had much 
feeling either way about his Jewish background.  This is not to detract from 
Weill's music--which I am crazy about. I just believe his actions convey little 
interest in either his Jewish religious or cultural background.

Eliott Kahn


At 01:54 AM 4/29/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Sylvie Braitman writes:
>
>"Did they see it coming? I do not think so."
>
>This may be true for the majority, but not all.  Certainly the more political 
>composers (here we go with politics again) knew what was happening.  Weil's 
>"Eternal Road," which has been mentioned several times lately, is all about 
>the rise of Nazism.  Many German workers sang Eisler's "Solidarity Song" 
>before they fought street battles with the Nazis when their trade unions were 
>outlawed.  One can certainly say that Eisler's music does not show the signs 
>of a great Jewish influence, but he was a political Jewish composer.  And both 
>he and Weil had the good sense to get out of Germany while they still had 
>time.  
>
>Schoenberg and his students show much less recognition of the impending 
>disaster.  None of the Czech composers who ended up in Thereisienstadt 
>included the influence of Jewish musical material in the works before  the 
>War.  They were too busy exploring the purely musical territory opened up by 
>Schoenberg's 12-tone methods.
>
>I would be interested to hear from someone who is knowledgable in the field of 
>Yiddish theater music on this topic.  In Poland, a good part of the Yiddish 
>cultural movement was influenced by the Jewish Bund and other leftist 
>political trends, who certainly had an idea of what was coming.
>
>Jeffrey Schanzer

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