The rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis in 1930s Germany had a immense impact on the lives of composers and the music they wrote. Equally good as supplying a historical and cultural overview. choose one composer whose experience exempli?es your statement.
Introduction. The popularity of the Nazi party from 1928 to 1930 increased in ballots by an amazing 5. 5 million. and so a by a farther 12 million ballots by 1933. This dominant support in Germany changed the class of universe history forever. The lives of 1000000s would now get down to alter and composers and instrumentalist were non exempli?ed. Their music had to ?t the standards of the Third Reich. it had to be deemed music of the Volk. and finally become music of the Nazis.
The Nazis program was to hold a music of their ain. that exempli?ed everything they stood for. that would in clip. when they had realised their aspiration of a pure Aryan Germany. besides be a pure blood music that they believed would be the ultimate musical signifier. I will take a expression historically. socially and culturally at the consequence of the rise to power of the Nazi party and besides at the consequence on the composings of Richard Strauss. a adult male of great international acknowledgment and who was promoted to the caput of the Reichsmusikammer. ( the State music agency ) .
Historical Context: With the prostration of the Wall street stock exchange in 1929 the beginning of the terminal of prosperity throughout western Europe had begun. Europe suffered to a great extent with American investors losing 1000s of million dollars within a individual month. this in bend triggered many short term loans to be called in and finally resulted in ‘foreign financess numbering 1000 million Markss being withdrawn from germany’ ( William Carr. A History of Germany. p. 295 ) during the summer of 1931. This caused the prostration of a figure of Bankss and resulted in the suspension of the German stock exchange to forestall the entire prostration of the banking system.
The ?nancial crisis turned to an industrial crisis. with the contraction of universe markets ‘Germanys export trade declined sharply’ ( Carr. 295 ) Between 1929 and 1932 unemployed rocketed from ‘900. 000 to to a extremum of over 6 million’ ( Carr. 295 ) The authorities became divided in the sentiment of what action to take. ‘the in-between category parties. Democrats. Democrats and Centre. though favouring retrenchment had really agreed on a via media expression but the socialists rejected it’ ( Carr. 296 ) . With the authorities now greatly divided. this forced the surrender of the Weimar Republics Chancellor of the Exchequer Hermann Muller and the assignment of Henrich Bruning. ‘the balance of power had begun to travel from the legislative assembly to the executive. where it had been in 1914 ( Carr. 296 ) .
Bruning was ideally suited to take the non-party authorities. he had the regard of the ground forces due to his clip functioning as a machine-gun of?cer in the ?rst universe were he won the Iron Cross and was a ‘man of autocratic positions who favoured the Restoration of the monarchy and the emasculation of the parliamentary system’ . ( Carr. 296 ) . However his clip in power was short. although tolerated at ?rst. his programs of a retrenchment budget was missing in much support. When ‘A socialist gesture demanding the backdown of the grade was carried by a narrow bulk. Bruning quickly dissolved the the Reichstag and ordered fresh elections. ( Carr. 297 ) .
During this period right flying feelings had spread to a degree that could non hold been predicted. in the old elections in 1928. the Nazi party polled merely ‘810. 000 votes’ ( Carr. 297 ) whereas ‘in 1930 they polled about six and a half million ballots and with 107 seats became the 2nd largest party in the Reichstag ( Carr. 297 ) . Through the promise of ‘strong authorities. divine leading and the Restoration of national pride’ ( Carr. 298 ) and ‘A combination of promises to pacify involvement groups ( husbandmans. civil retainers. little makers etc’ ( Carr. 298 ) and besides ‘the immediate renunciation of the Versailles Treaty’ ( Carr. 298 ) the party had offered up the opportunity to reconstruct Germany’s illustriousness.
‘On January 1933 Hindenberg received Hitler in audience and appointed him chancellor’ . ( Carr. 308 ) . After a convenient ?re had burnt down the Reichstag ( the German legislative assembly edifice ) and was blamed on a Communist originating the stalking-horse was set for the Nazi party and Hitler to increase their power. with the understanding of the president. Hitler put in topographic point ‘a decree suspending most civil and political liberties’ ( Carr. 310 ) The Nazi absolutism had now begun. The undermentioned election on March 6th 1933 saw an addition in ballots polled to 17. 277. 200 and by ‘July 14th 1933 the National Socialist German Workers Party was proclaimed the lone legal party in Germany’ . ( Carr. 311 ) .
From this point on in Germany the policy of Gleichschaltung ( coordination/making the same/bringing into line ) was brought into great consequence and ‘applied to every facet of life in Nazi Germany’ ( Carr. 321 ) Education was a cardinal country and given particular attending. politically un-reliable instructors were replaced with politically dependable 1s enthusiastic at learning ‘pro Nazi texts in all schools. particularly the instructions of biological science and history’ ( Carr. 321 ) . in fact by ‘1936 32 per centum of instructors were members of the party’ ( Modern Germany. V. R. Berghahn. p136 ) . Young male childs were forced to fall in the Hitlerjugend ( Hitler young person ) . likewise misss joined the Bund deutscher Madel ( the misss equivalent ) and ‘young work forces aged between 18 and 25 were obliged to pass 6 months engaged in public plants and military preparation. followed by a farther 2 old ages mandatory military service’ ( Carr. 321 )
Separate administrations were set up for all other careers in German life. Doctors. Lawyers. instructors. technicians. lectors. pupils and husbandmans. The German people were subjected to a changeless bombardment of propaganda by the province as they had full control of the country’s media. this kept them ‘overwhelmed by the great crisis of the 1930s and merely excessively ready to suspend their rational modules and resignation to the mysterious and anti-rationalism of Nazism’ ( Carr. 321 ) . Hitler had given back a sense of national pride and solidarity to a state that merely a few old ages before was ?at broke. starvation and unemployed with no chances. ’
No attempt was spared by party propagandists to keep national feeling at febrility pitch’ ( Carr. 322 ) enthusiastic mass meetings. ?ag beckoning and of class. ‘Constant reduplication of racist themes’ ( Carr. 322 ) Hitler and the Nazi parties persecution of the Jews had now begun. although in the early old ages the force and persecution was more cautious as Hitler new of their importance to help the economic recovery. nevertheless. by 1935 new limitation were put in topographic point. ‘Jews were denied full citizenship. forbidden to get married Aryans while excess matrimonial dealingss were punishable’ ( Carr. 323 ) their temples had been burnt and their places and stores looted and by 1938 some ‘120. 000 had left Germany after being robbed of their possessions’ ( Carr. 323 ) .
They were the lucky 1s. many 1000s more were murdered and attacked by hoods and bullies during this period. With national pride and sense of domination now instilled in the people. Hitler and the Nazi party now prepared for war. Music and the Third Reich. With the rise to power of the National socialist workers party. it was inevitable that instrumentalists would endure. that there art would come under rigorous regulations and ordinances and that the governments would convey their composings and artistic offerings into line with Nazi political relations and political orientations.
In some respects it could be seen as a instance of out with the new and in with the old. musical signifiers such as modernism and atonalism and along with art signifiers such as Impressionism. surrealism and expressionism were branded ‘Degenerate art’ ( G Schubert. Music and Nazism. p64 ) its widely recognised that Hitlers favourite composer was Richard Wagner who some may reason held a common land with over their anti-semitic positions. along with Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Brucker these three were considered by the Fuhre and his 2nd in bid Goebbels as ‘the maestro composers that represented good German music’ ( 1 )
The whole construct of German music. or to set it more right Nazi music. was to ‘Establish a binding Criteria for the substance of Volkisch German music’ ( G Schubert. Music and Nazism. p64 ) or in other words music for the German volk ( common people ) and that music should be every bit pure as the Ayrian race they were seeking to make. Goebbels explains. ‘We see in art the highest originative look of a community of blood. The purer the blood of the community of the Volk. the greater the art will be’ ( Schubert. 65 ) The nazi’s indefatigably worked towards a construct of German common people music. or music for its ain people by its ain people. a music that evoked a chauvinistic. political and racist signi?cance of its ain ends.
However. they were merely successful through ‘means of presenting. contextualizing. transforming a work and its production’ ( Schunbert. 66 ) or propaganda. fright and torment. and this can non hold the coveted consequence. ‘the interior nucleus of a common people music. which the patriots hold to be unmistakably connected with race. turns out to be. on the contrary. something cosmopolitan and linking. The national component in the formation of cardinal types is hence non something original that can non be farther examined. but is something added. something variable. something acquired’ ( Schubert. 66 ) It didn’t affair what you had achieved as a composer or instrumentalist in old old ages. if the musical signifier. the race of the composer or the political stance didn’t support of sympathise with the political docket and political orientations of the party. so you wouldn’t be tolerated.
For illustration. early in 1933 the governments burst into a public presentation of Verdi’s opera Rigolettto. it was being conducted by the celebrated conducter Fritz Busch. The governments so proceeded to ‘heckle the music director and interrupt the performance’ ( Evans. 392 ) until it was halted. Busch wasn’t Jewish. nor was his work considered debauched art. nevertheless antecedently he had ‘strenuously objected to the nazi’s programs to cut the province cultural budget as portion of the economic system measures during the depression’ ( Evans. 392 )
Subsequently he was besides accused of ‘employing to many Jews and demanding to much pay’ ( Evans. 292 ) This set the stalking-horse for province commissioners and the governments to get down ‘Banning concerts and operas on the evidences that they might give rise to public disorder’ ( Evans. 393 ) Other events took topographic point which furthered the the crisp diminution on anything other than ‘German’ music. ‘the chief music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra. Bruno Waters’ ( Evans. 393 ) was replaced with Richard Strauss four yearss before a public presentation in Berlin. after Goebbels had made it clear that the concert could merely travel in front under the way of a non-jewish music director.
These racial actions and determinations quickly ?ltered down right through to the nucleus of non merely musical public presentation. but musical instruction. musical Hagiographas and musical concern. Through ‘the Reich Law for the Restoration of a Professional Civil Service’ ( Evans. 394 ) Judaic Lectors and professors ( most notably Arnold Schoenberg and Franz Schrecker ) were dismissed. musical critics. musicologists and concert agents were all removed from there places for being Judaic.
In fact. ‘In June 1933. Musical associations of all sorts. right down to male voice choirs in working category excavation small towns and music grasp societies in suburbs of metropoliss were taken over and purged of their Judaic members’ ( Evans. 394 ) Events like these were backed up with a bombardment of propaganda shouting about reconstructing ‘true German musical culture’ ( Evans. 394 ) aimed at moreover converting the population of the right of Germany to go a pure blood state.
Richard Strauss. As a adult male Richard Strauss did non back up the government in Germany. from the rise to power of the Nazis through the early 1930’s. to being awarded the presidential term of the Reichsmusikkammer ( Reich music chamber ) . However he besides did non talk against the government. or category himself an anti-nazi. like so many others ‘He merely allow it happen’ ( George A Marek. Richard Strauss: the Life of a Non Hero. P270 ) The inquiry is. What consequence did the Rise to power of the Nazis have on his music? good. attending should be brought to his Tone Poems. A tone verse form or symphonic verse form is ‘a peice of of music non divided into into motions and which is based on a narrative or literary descriptive theme’ ( Chambers combined dictionary ) .
Take for illustration his ?nal tone verse form ‘Eine Alpensinfonie’ ( An Alpine symphonic music ) It is based on the clip period ‘which would get down with a dawn in Switzerland’ ( Norman Del Mar. Richard Strauss a critical commentary of his life and works. vol 2. P105 ) . In all it is made up of ’22 uninterrupted subdivisions that cover twenty four hours of the life of a mountain and its successful assailants’ . ( Del Mar. 106 ) . Now. in footings of signifier. efforts have been made to compare the piece to a ‘gigantic Listztian symphonic signifier. with elements of an debut. opening allegro. scherzo. slow motion. ?nale and epilogue’ ( Del Mar. 107 ) However. the strong sense of construction is created by Strauss’ musical pictorialism and elaborate narration.
The piece begins at dark opening in a unison B ?at that ‘slowly descends. each note prolonging until every grade of the graduated table is heard simultaneously’ ( Del Mar. 107 ) therefore stand foring the deepest base of the mountain at dark clip. Strauss moves through the gestures into picturing dawn which ‘motivically is based on the falling graduated table of the symphonic music opening although transformed into melodious outbursts’ ( Del Mar. 108 ) and onto the acclivity of of the mountain harmonically exchanging key to E ?at major and a more self-asserting feel. as the gap of the twine subdivision starts to lb and ascend. the motive injects a sense of intent and forward gesture. these motives will in fact conspicuously return throughout the full piece.
As the journey moves forwards. Strauss uses his instrumentality to picture the narrative vividly. for illustration. ‘Instrumental tones deepen as thick leaf obscures the light’ ( Del Mar 110 ) . upper woodwinds picturing birdsongs. cascading scale ?gures and hotfooting transitions making the ?ow of waterfalls and babbling Brookss.
From cascading tunes and repeated motives in the ?owering meadows to ‘an luxuriant contrapuntal transition of switching chromatic tonalities’ ( Del Mar. 113 ) somewhat heretical feverish minor graduated table tallies and frenetic call and response subdivisions between the brass. horn and twine subdivisions that signify taking the incorrect way up the mountain to danger. Strauss paints a graphic image right to the centre point of the piece. Auf dem Gipfel ( On the acme ) . ‘The conquering of the extremum is the corner-stone of the work’ ( Del Mar. 114 ) .
However Strauss doesn’t travel all out for a immense ostentation of we made it. its a more somewhat elusive yet bestiring subdivision of horn and brass motives built out of old subdivisions. ‘Only bit by bit. a realization of overpowering beauty of the view’ ( Del Mar. 115 ) is infused through warm colorful orchestration and the fantastic key of C major. Vivid. quieting. intriguing and dramatic boulder clay the terminal. his usage of counterpoint and harmoniousness is keen and moving and besides likely the last thing that one could tie in with why the National Socialist party installed him as their caput of music. nevertheless Strauss was a universe renowned composer. a lover of Wagner and a composer of Romanticism which the party wanted a return to. it is besides deserving reference that Strauss was besides considered by some in the 1890’s as being ‘the forefont of modernist music’ ( Richard Trombley. Encyclopedia of music in the 20th century. P612 ) a signifier that the Nazi’s were non so lament on. In July 1935 Strauss was forced to vacate as caput of the Reich music chamber. ‘there is a general understanding that strauss’ missive to Stefan Zweig ( his Jewish friend and librettist ) led to the expiration of his of his presidential term of the chamber’ ( Reithmuller. 269 )
One twelvemonth earlier in 1934. Strauss and Zweig were able to run into in Salzberg. it was here that together they had the thought for for a new opera that finally developed into Strauss’s Freidenstag. ( Peace twenty-four hours ) . Could it be that the gustatory sensation for something anti-establishment had developed in the oral cavity of Strauss? perchance. Freidenstag is an opera about ‘the victory of an ordinary. friendly. peace loving society over ingrowing militarism’ ( William Mann. Richard Strauss’s Friedenstag. P438 )
Finally Strauss collaborated with Joseph Gregor. Zweig asked for the work to handed to ‘another Libretto’ ( Mann. P438 ) as he new the Nazi’s wouldn’t allow the work to be performed with a Judaic name on it. Some describe it as ‘a hopeless piece of work and the music unispired’ ( Marek. P292 ) On the contrary. at times its shows Strauss at his energetic best. with driving twine and staccato horn lines placed over the throbing beat of a marching membranophone. Pulling the hearer in and plunging them in the narrative he’s stating. and in this instance. ‘the most tough. bitter. frustrated. corrupting ambiance of war’ ( Mann. P292 )
Conclusion Richard Strauss’s music was certainly in?uenced by the rise of the Nazi party from the late 1920’s and throughout the 1930’s. If for no other ground than a adult males need to protect his household. his Judaic daughter-in-law and Judaic expansive kids would evidently go marks of the Nazi political orientation. It it wasn’t for Strauss’s outstanding stature within the national and international community and perchance the regard of Hitler himself. their destiny would hold certainly been a different one.
Further more. Strauss thought the ‘Jew teasing a shame to German honour‘ ( Kennedy. Michael. Richard Strauss. Man. Musician. Enigma. P272 ) he was a adult male who saw no differentiation between races other than if they had endowment or non. this position didn’t ?t with the political relations of Germany at the clip so its no admiration his presidential term of the Reichsmusikkrammer was short lived.
Musically the alteration from Eine Alpinesinfonie to Freidenstag isn’t that drastic. nevertheless the message is. the tone verse form being a journey of find and escapade. of adult males ability to travel caput to caput with mother nature and make the extremum of a mountain merely to be left in awe of the beauty of the the universe beneath their pess. Freidenstag. is basically a Hymn for peace in the face of adult males quest for military domination and power. a conflict of ordinary people against the oppressive government overpowering them.
Possibly in Freidenstag Strauss was composing a stalking-horse for the ruin of the Nazi government and a return to a peace loving racially tolerant and multi-cultural Germany where music. art a life could ?ourish.
Bibliography.
Breghahn. V. R. Modern Germany. Cambridge university imperativeness. 1987. Carr. Williem. A history of Germany 4th edition. Arnold publishing houses 1991. Crew. David F. Nazism and German society. 1933-1945. Routledge. 1994 Etlin. Richard A. Art. Culture and Media under the Third Reich. University of Chicago imperativeness 2002. Evans. Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. The Penguin imperativeness. 2004. Kater. Michael H/Reithmuller. A ( Schubert. G ) . Music and Nazism. Art under Tyranny. Laaber 2003. Kennedy. Michael. Richard Strauss. Man. Musician. Enigma. Cambridge university imperativeness. 1999 Mann. William. Richard Strauss’s ‘Friedenstag’ . Musical Times Publication. Vol 112. 1971. Marek. George R. Richard Strauss: the life of a Non-Hero. London Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1967. Speer. Albert.
Inside the Third Reich. Sphere Books. 1971. Stacy. Lee and Henderson. Lol. Encyclopedia of music in the 20th century. Fitzroy Deanborn publishing houses. 1999
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