Re: The Pianist

[Shirona <shirona...>]

The core issue for me in this debate is how did Szpilman define himself...   a 
question that may shed some light on his decisions. The film, or the events of 
his life seem to suggest that being a musician was the main focus of his 
life... more so than being a Jew... How else can one understand his decision to 
stay in a country in which his entire family was murdered, his entire people 
were murdered, and he was fully aware of the degree to which his own non-Jewish 
countrymen participated in the extermination?  It's impossible to "judge" such 
decisions, but it's important to try and understand them...   

Was he indifferent to his Jewishness?  Did he see himself as a Pole first, Jew 
second, as did so many unfortunate German-Jews?  Was staying in Poland (as a 
successful musician) the ultimate act of defiance... proving to the Poles and 
to the rest of the world that Jews are worth while, contributing citizens of 
the world?  

Who knows.

Shirona

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
 Visit my website at    www.shirona.com
Listen to my music at www.mp3.com/shirona
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bob Wiener 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 6:39 AM
  Subject: Re: The Pianist


  Is any of Szpilman's music Jewish music?  That is, are we talking about him 
because he wrote music informed musically (or at least in the lyrics -- did he 
write them too?) by the fact that he was a Jew, or are we only talking about 
him because he was Jewish?  I realize that the argument can be made that we are 
the sum total of our experience, but is Szpilman's Jewish experience in any way 
apparent in his music?

  Bob
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: lenka lichtenberg 
    To: World music from a Jewish slant 
    Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2003 12:03 AM
    Subject: Re: The Pianist


    Having just seen the film, I am still deeply shaken (many scenes in the 
early part of the film are close home for my family) . According to today's 
article in the Toronto Star, Szpilman's son recently produced a CD with 12 of 
his father's songs sung in English by Montreal Wendy Lands (Wendy Lands Sings 
The Music Of The Pianist). Sony has issued five CDs and CD sets of Szpilman 
playing the classics, but there are also his three musicals, the children's 
songs and the hundreds of other pop tunes. Yes Shirona i think you are right 
that it was his celebrity that kept him in Poland as it also allowed him to 
survive in the first place, while the refusal to leave after the destruction I 
think is both a kind of resistance, as well as a need to rebuild from the 
ashes, some bits of the existence that was lost; apart from that, a certain 
fatigue maybe to move anywhere at all, that I feel was there in my family's (or 
whatever little was left of it) case. 
    lenka

    lenka lichtenberg, singer-songwriter, yiddish and world music performer. 
for mp3s, audio clips and performance updates, visit www.lenkalichtenberg.com

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Alex J. Lubet 
      To: World music from a Jewish slant 
      Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 12:01 PM
      Subject: Re: The Pianist




      Shirona wrote:

      > After seeing Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" (a powerful and upsetting
      > film) - I looked up Wladyslaw Szpilman, the late Jewish/Polish
      > composer/pianist who's autobiographic account of surviving  WWII in
      > Warsaw is the basis of this film .  He was a prolific classical
      > composer, before and after the war (he stayed in Poland until his
      > death in 2000) - but also wrote some 500 songs, 150 of which are
      > considered the "evergreens" of Polish popular music...and 40
      > children's songs for which he received awards... Is anyone familiar
      > with his music and songs? I couldn't help wondering though - how could
      > he stay in Poland after the entire Jewish population was wiped out,
      > and the Poles proved themselves to be just as savage and eager to get
      > rid of the Jews as the Germans... Was he such a musical celebrity in
      > Poland that being Jewish, in his case, didn't matter?
      >
      > I haven't seen the film yet, but I've heard that his celebrity was the
      > reason he stayed.  Having lived and worked in Poland a while in 1999,
      > I made many good, non-Jewish friends, who were deeply empathetic,
      > caring, and curious about the Jewish legacy in their country.  Being
      > there (and teaching a Jewish music course) was pretty eerie, rather
      > like what Isaac Singer might have suggested, surrounded by millions of
      > Jews, the vast majority of them ghosts.  I felt immensely connected to
      > the place (although my own heritage is in Lithuania and Ukraine),
      > because the markers of the lost Jewish world.  I sometimes burst into
      > tears just walking down the streets of Lublin.  I was invited back and
      > would have jumped at the chance had it not been for health problems.
      >
      > I don't think I've answered your question, especially since I'm not a
      > Pole and had only a bit of the language, but the place has a way of
      > holding one.  There was no way to be naive about the anti-Semitism,
      > the grafitti was everywhere, but I also had incredible friends, some
      > of the best folks I've ever known.  I also got the impression that
      > some Jews felt the need to stay as a sort of act of resistance.
      >
      > As bad as it was for Jews after the war, it got considerably worse in
      > 1967, when there was a huge employment purge after the Six-Day war.
      >
      >
      >
      >
      >
      >
      >
      >   Shirona* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
      > * *
      > Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
      >  Visit my website at    www.shirona.com
      > Listen to my music at www.mp3.com/shirona
      > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

      --
      Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
      Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
      Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
      Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
      University of Minnesota
      2106 4th St. S
      Minneapolis, MN 55455
      612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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