****Forwarded message from Erik Levi <[log in to unmask]>****
Announcement and Call for Papers

Music, Oppression and Exile:
The Impact of Nazism on Musical Development in the 20th Century
International Conference presented by JMI SOAS International Centre for 
Suppressed Music and the Institute of Musical Research, University of 
London
Wednesday 9–Friday 11 April 2008
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

in association with
The Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada

Music in Exile

Four concerts* and public lectures presented by
The ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory, Canada)
and the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble
Saturday 12, Sunday 13 April 2008
Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ
*see full concert programmes at the end of this document

As Nick Kimberley wrote in The Observer, ‘Hitler tore a gaping hole in 
European culture, and the damage has not yet been repaired’. To 
understand what happened in the first half of the 20th century to the 
musical culture of Europe and its diaspora, the Jewish Music Institute 
International Centre for Suppressed Music together with the Institute of 
Music Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London will host 
an international conference exploring four main areas:
1) Musical life in Europe before Hitler
2) The mechanics of the Third Reich’s music policies
3) Dispersal of composers and musicians
4) Musical life in Europe after Hitler
Within these several smaller themes could be considered.

Papers are invited on any of these broad subjects or related topics. 
Papers should be of approximately 25 minutes’ duration (with an 
additional 10 minutes for discussion). The deadline for the receipt of 
abstracts is 30 October 2007.

Invited speakers will include:
Gottfried Wagner, great-grandson of Richard Wagner
Michael Haas, producer of the Decca ‘Entartete Musik’ recordings; music 
curator of the Jewish Museum Vienna; and Research Director of the JMI 
International Centre for Suppressed Music, London
Bret Werb, Director of Music at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Albrecht Dümling, Musica Reanimata, Berlin
Erik Levi, Royal Holloway University of London, author of Music in the 
Third Reich
Christopher Nupen, will introduce his remarkable film We Want the Light, 
which seeks to understand the meaning of music in human experience 
through the prism of its role in relationships between Jews and Germans.

Abstracts of up to 250 words for papers in English should be sent to 
both of the conference organisers: Erik Levi (Reader in Music, Royal 
Holloway University of London) at [log in to unmask], and Michael Haas at 
[log in to unmask]

Abstracts may be sent as attachments (in Word documents in or in Rich 
Text Format) but please back up the attachment with a plain-text version 
in the main e-mail. They should be accompanied by information about the 
author under the following headings:

Name
Institution
Address of Institution
Position
100-word CV
Postal Address
Phone, Fax, E-Mail

Acceptance of a proposal
will be at the discretion of the conference organisers. The committee 
will make final decision on abstracts by 1 December 2007, and 
contributors will be informed very soon thereafter. A conference website 
will be available in due course, at www.suppressedmusic.org.uk with a 
registration form for delegates, and further information will be posted 
on relevant websites and discussion lists. Selected papers will be 
published.

* The composers featured in the concert series:
Boris Blacher (1903–75)
Walter Braunfels (1882–1954)
Hanns Eisler (1898–1962)
Hans Gál (1890–1987)
Berthold Goldschmidt (1903–96)
Robert Kahn (1865–1951)
Heinrich Kaminski (1886–1946)
Marc Neikrug (b. 1946)
Franz Reizenstein (1911–68)
Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995)
Alexander Tansman (1897–86)
Heinz Tiessen (1887–1971)
Kurt Weill (1900–50)
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–86)

Background:

Musical Life before Hitler, the first theme, includes Jewish composers 
who were both traditionalists and modernists. At the time of Hitler’s 
rise to power in 1933, it could be argued, Jewish musicians were perhaps 
Germany’s and Austria’s most important living, cultural assets. 
Furthermore, there was hardly a note of popular music that did not rely 
on Jewish artists for either the melodies or the words, and usually 
both. In the area of serious music, Jewish composers were equally 
active, enjoying considerable prestige at home and abroad.

The Mechanics of the Third Reich’s Music Policies poses some interesting 
and potentially conflicting agendas: for example, how does one ban 
Jewish composers without giving off the subliminal message that the 
traditional music with which most of them aligned themselves was somehow 
un-German? How does one ban atonal music and other avant-garde idioms by 
Jewish or non-Jewish composers, without presenting the message that 
National Socialism was a conservative, rather than a progressive, form 
of government? Here more than elsewhere is where one can look at and 
examine the idea of ‘inner exile’, whom it affected and its wider impact.

The third area is the most varied: the effects of transplantation were 
as distinct and individual as the people involved. A composer who landed 
in Rio had a different experience and affected his new homeland 
differently from a composer who landed in Adelaide or Singapore. The 
catalysts of musical life in every country were often (post 1933) 
musical refugees. This could encompass a whole variety of musical 
activities, including publishing or management in London and New York, 
early music scholarship at Oxford, music education in Tokyo or the Bossa 
Nova in Brazil.

Musical Life after Hitler inevitably had to grow out of the ruins of 
Hitler’s Europe. The effects are still felt today but there were also 
more tangible events that still have to be examined: the de-Nazification 
processes; the re-introduction of banned music to the arenas of 
Germany’s Europe, and the philosophical, aesthetic and cultural reaction 
to the years of suppression.

*Music in Exile (full programmes)
Four concerts* and public lectures presented by
The ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory, Canada)
and the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble
Saturday 12, Sunday 13 April 2008
Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ

Programme 1 – Inner Exile
Lied eines Gefangenen § Heinrich Kaminski (1886–1946)
Songs for baritone and piano Boris Blacher (1903–75)
Peter Barrett, baritone
Amsel (Blackbird) Septet, Op. 20 § Heinz Tiessen (1887–1971)
for flute, clarinet, horn and string quartet
String Quintet in F minor, Op. 63 § Walter Braunfels (1882–1954)
_______________________________________________________________________

Programme 2 – Through Roses
Songs of Exile Kurt Weill, (1900–50)
Hanns Eisler (1898–1962)
Miklós Rózsa (1907–95)
Phillida Bannister, contralto
Through Roses Marc Neikrug (b. 1946)
Music-drama for an actor and eight solo instruments
conductor Marc Neikrug, actor Saul Rubinek,
violin, flute oboe, clarinet, viola, cello, piano, percussion
_______________________________________________________________________

Programme 3 – Poles Apart

Clarinet Sonata, Op. 28 Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–86)
String Sextet Alexander Tansman (1897–86)
Piano Quintet, Op. 18 Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–96)
_______________________________________________________________________

Programme 4 – Continental Britons

7 Lieder aus Jungbrunnen § Robert Kahn (1865–1951)
for voice and piano trio
Two Morgenstern Songs § Berthold Goldschmidt (1903–96)
for voice and string trio*
Peter Barrett, baritone
Clarinet Quintet, Op. 107 Hans Gál (1890–1987)
Piano Quintet in D, Op. 23 Franz Reizenstein (1911–68)
_______________________________________________________________________


****End of forwarded message****

-- 
______________________________________

Dr J. P. E. Harper-Scott
Lecturer in Music
Department of Music
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, Great Britain
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Music/jpeh-s.html
______________________________________