Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis

by Michael Haas

Overview

A groundbreaking study of the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich—and the consequences for music worldwide

With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This groundbreaking book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germany’s historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation.

Michael Haas looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge, such as Britain and the United States and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300205350
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	979,116
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Michael Haas is director of research at the Jewish Music Institute’s Centre for Suppressed Music, based at Royal Holloway, University of London. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction 1

1 German and Jewish 7

2 Wagner and German Jewish Composers in the Nineteenth Century 28

3 An Age of Liberalism, Brahms and the Chronicler Hanslick 43

4 Mahler and His Chronicler Korngold 62

5 The Jugendstil School of Schoenberg, Schrecker, Zemlinsky and Weigl 80

6 A Musical Migration 99

7 Hey! We're Alive! 128

8 A Question of Musical Potency: The Anti-Romantics 149

9 The Resolute Romantics 174

10 Between Hell and Purgatory 200

11 Exile and Worse 239

12 Restitution 274

Epilogue 305

Notes 307

Bibliography 320

Index 335

Editorial Reviews

“Michael Haas makes [his] case powerfully in his important book.”—James Loeffler, The New Republic

The New Republic - James Loeffler

Winner in the 2014 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence for the best historical Research in Classical Music category.

Association for Recorded Sound Collections - ARSC Awards for Excellence

"This is a big and important book...that really must be read by anyone with even a passing interest in the music of this period. One closes it with a mixture of astonishment and admiration."—Peter Franklin, Opera Magazine

Opera Magazine - Peter Franklin

“[T]his compelling exploration of the role Jewish musicians and composers played in the cultural life of the Prussian and Austro-Hungarian Empire. . . is rich in unexpected facts and quotes. . . Its greatest virtue is the unearthing of composers, critics, conductors and musicians destined for obscurity. Haas makes a pleasingly detailed argument for honouring a treasure trove to which the development of Western music owes a considerable debt.”—Rebecca K Morrison, The Independent

Independent - Rebecca K. Morrison

“An outstandingly fine piece of work.”—Terry Teachout, Commentary

Commentary - Terry Teachout

“A valuable compendium of untold stories, a corrective to standard histories of music and an essential reference point for anyone engaged in the culture and politics of the twentieth century.”—Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - Norman Lebrecht

"A tragic and epic story that Haas relates so magisterially well that this book will probably remain definitive on its subject for the foreseeable future."—Booklist, starred review

Booklist

A veteran recording producer and authority on Jewish music debuts with a richly detailed history of Jewish musicians--not just composers--who were threatened by the Holocaust. The author set for himself some difficult tasks: telling riveting personal stories, providing historical and cultural contexts, explaining the types of music that composers were creating before and during the rise of the Nazis, charting the conflicts about music that raged among the musicians themselves. On nearly every page, Haas reveals his vast knowledge about the era and its principals, but his style is often thick and academic, and many long quotations block rather than enhance the flow of his narrative. Appearing throughout is critic Julius Korngold, early champion of Gustav Mahler; the author includes long passages of Korngold's writing. Haas describes the musical life in Austria and Germany before the Nazis and reminds us that many Jews in Germany were secular and defined themselves as German. He tells the story of the end of World War I and the "mass exodus" of intellectuals and artists from Vienna to Berlin. He follows the rise of expressionism and continually brings before us the names of artists unfamiliar to many--Ernst Toch, Hanns Eisler, Edmund Meisel, Hans Gál, Egon Wellesz and many more. Haas describes the conflict between the Romantics and the rising influence of Arnold Schoenberg, and he does not neglect Wagner's ugly influence. Many musicians who escaped the Nazis found employment in the film and other entertainment industries. Americans, writes the author, were glad to welcome into their orchestras the notables from Europe. Haas also spends some time on musical life within the death camps and charts the effects on the music world of denazification after the war. An important text whose dense design may dissuade some general readers but whose thorough research supplies some significant pages in the account of some of history's darkest decades.

Kirkus Reviews