MUSIC AND THE HOLOCAUST

Catalog description

Music threads through the Holocaust like a leitmotif. Therefore, this course will examine and discuss the writings of Wagner and Nietzsche. Then we will look at the restrictions placed on Jewish composers, musicians and conductors that resulted in the Berlin Kulterbund through the reading of The Inextinguishable Symphony. Next, we will read and discuss the memoirs of musicians who played in the Warsaw Ghetto, in Auschwitz and Terezin. As a conclusion the course will examine the responses of second and third generations through the memoir Twilight of the Wagners by Gottried Wagner, in addition to several novels focused on second generation and music The Song of Names and Dissonance. We will listen to and discuss various musical selections, such as works by Richard Wagner, Gustave Mahler, Gideon Klein, and Viktor Ullman.