Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!rrizzo From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Music and nazism Message-ID: <1526@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 18:10:51 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncca.1526 Posted: Tue Aug 13 18:10:51 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 07:42:47 EDT References: <4935@allegra.UUCP> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 51 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? Why does my request for info have to "have a point"? I didn't say I'd recommend acting in any way on the findings (ie, smash all my Carl Boehm albums )=: ). Information about music and nazism certainly has strong intrinsic interest. It's often (as in the case of von Karajan) front-page material. 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. 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. I mentioned Henze's father because my topic was broad: any positive relation between music & nazism. The contemporary physicist Carl von Weizaecker has written extensively about his famous nazi father. It's ok in science writing, so why not in music? Though I'm trying to avoid the issue of music "tainted" by nazism, in other arts it's considered a valid question: for example, Susan Sontag wrote a well-known critique of the films (& cult) of Leni Riefenstahl, hitler's principal cinematographer, claiming even her pre-1933 work was imbued with a [sic.?] "nazi aesthetic". The contemporary filmmaker Syberberg has explored Wagner & his work as a precursor of nazism in more than one film ("Our Hitler", "Parsifal"). 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. 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. Regards, Ron Rizzo