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From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Music and nazism
Message-ID: <5613@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 14:35:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.5613
Posted: Sat Aug 17 14:35:16 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 08:07:32 EDT
References: <4935@allegra.UUCP> <1526@bbncca.ARPA>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 62

> I could be bitchy & say, "my, how touchy we are!"  Why does
> the mere broaching of certain topics raise the spectre of
> "censorship" or "ad hominem attack" with some people?
> 
> Oddly enough, I think publishing such information is a public
> service, though maybe one that much of the musical public doesn't
> welcome.  And I think the desire to know has a moral, as well as
> prurient, dimension to it.
 
Perhaps. But the connection of a person with the Nazi regime
can only have the purpose of trying to make them and their work
look bad (unless, I suppose, you happen to be a Nazi). So when you
make those connections lightly, as you did with Flagstad and Henze,
you are basically slandering these people. Is that what you call a
"public service" ?

> Most of the affected musical figures are musicians and conductors
> rather than composers, so mainly interpretations and performances
> of music rather than the music itself are involved.
 
So? How can the quality of performance of a piece of music
depend on the political beliefs of the performers?
 
> It's become nearly standard fare in literature to investigate
> nazi connections not only in terms of history & biography but
> criticism as well: Pound, Celine, even TS Eliot have all received
> generous amounts of attention in this vein.  But in music, I sense
> a great reluctance to even raise the issue, perhaps out of defen-
> siveness because nazism arose in the musical heartland of Germany
> & Austria, potentially affecting the musical life of decades in
> many ways.  Music seems retrograde on the nazi question, compared
> to the other arts & sciences.

No, what you sense is the intelligence of musicians who realize that
"nazi connections" have nothing whatever to do with the quality of
music itself, which, being musicians, is what they're interested in.
Just because they have not joined in the latest critical fad does not
mean they are "retrograde" in any sense.

> Maybe I'm just a trouble-maker, but my impression is that many
> audiophiles aren't aware of the extent of the relationship (I'm
> not either: personal mail I've received has surprised me; the
> more I look & ask, the more I seem to find), or don't want to
> know.  All the more reason to get the word out.
 
Why? And why are you so surprised? Germany, the home of Naziism, was
(and is) one of the most musical coutries in the world. It's hardly
surprising that many musicians were Nazis and vice-versa. Or do you
imagine that somehow being a musician should make one better able
to see through the (apparently) attractive facade that Naziism
presented, to its terrible reality? Artur Schnabel, in "My Life and
Music", had some pertinent things to say about this. (It's a good
book, you might check it out.) 

I still don't see that a musician being a Nazi has any more significance
than any other example of someone being an expert in one field and a jerk
in another, unrelated field. After reading Shockley's "sociological"
theories, one may think less of him as a person, but does that make his
contributions to physics any less important?


				Jeff Winslow