Auschwitz songs are retrieved for performance
mainPatricia Hall, professor of music theory at the University of Michigan, has made several visits to the archives at Auschwitz to research songs written by inmates of the death camp. Titles include ‘The Most Beautiful Time of Life’ and ‘Sing When You’re Sad’.
It is thought that the songs were performed at matinees for SS murderers.
The songs will be performed at the university this weekend.
More here.
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2017/10/03/szymon-laks-music-of-another-world/
Thank you for posting this.
There have been books published on the art work and poetry that have come out of death and concentration camps; I’m surprised that if music was written or newly arranged in the camps that there has not been more research on it. It’s an important project and this music would be played or sung at many Yom Hashoah (Holocaust remembrance day) programs all over the world.
Two or three years ago, on an intermediate day of Passover, I went to a recital at Carnegie Hall that was a choral version of the Passover seder, a dinner that is also a religious service that is done on the Jewish holiday of Passover, a collaboration between two Jewish composers living in hiding in different European countries. The music was not that interesting, in fact, it was downright repetitive, probably because the collaboration was so difficult, but just the fact that these guys, under the most difficult circumstances, were working on a musical project celebrating Jewish liberation from oppression, the purpose of the holiday of Passover, was very inspiring –and they stuck very close to the actual liturgy.
Remember the poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”? Some of the most beautiful music, and other artwork as well, comes out of situations of oppression.
Thank you for posting this