Carl Orff

[Sylvie Braitman <curlySylvie...>]

Wagner was adopted as an symbol by the Nazis. But everything seems to
indicate he wouldn't have minded, had he been alive. In addition his heirs
at the time in Bayreuth were quite willing to collaborate with the Nazis
propaganda. And as we know, Bayreuth is an official Wagnerian institution.
So I believe the association between Wagner and the Nazis is not
overstretched.
Of course he was not the only one, and he was dead. Carl Orff is a
complicated case since one of his grandparent was Jewish. He managed to hide
that quite well and save his "ass" brilliantly.
I would not say his music is Nazi. I think that at the same time some
composers of Jewish origins were writing similar things...
Other complex cases are Richard Strauss whose son's Jewish family ended up
in Theresienstadt, despite of the fact that he had been the first president
of the Reich Music Chamber.
Then we can go on to Karajan and his brilliant post war career, Furtwangler
and Elizabeth Scwartzkopf, all brilliant musicians who joined the Nazi party
( not Furtwanger, I believe) for professional as well as political reasons.
Sylvie

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