Nazis and the arts (dead horse)
Michael H. Bloom
>Hey, speaking of nazis - were'nt they into funding the arts pretty
>heavily?
No, they were into producing propaganda and calling it art.
Happens there was an amazing exhibit touring the USA last year (it may still be
on exhibit at a museum near you) called "Degenerate Art." It's a reproduction of
what the Nazis did to the arts in Germany when they assumed total authority in
the '30s. They sent their minions around to all the museums in Germany and just
confiscated anything they didn't like-- which was nearly everything that wasn't
still lifes, postcard landscapes, or socialist "realist" portraits of tall blond
noble happy Aryans. Then they put together an exhibit of what they considered to
be the worst offenders, with extremely slanted commentary and some outright lies
about how the artists were insulting the fatherland, e.g. one painting by a guy
who felt guilty about his military service, which he called "Self-Portrait as a
Soldier," they claimed was called "Soldier with Whore," and said it was just an
insult at German military might and Aryan womanhood, blah blah. They required
every museum of substance in the Reich to run this show-- some of them seeing
for the last time paintings that were stolen from them-- and then to support
Hitler's program for the arts, which was more sylvan landscapes and Aryan hero
portraiture and architecture (Hitler was a passable portrayer of architectural
scenes himself, and he took a hand in designing a lot of the Nazi monuments).
Needless to say, most of what you call creative art was considered degenerate,
including (of course) all art done by Jews. Anything abstract was referred to
as psychologically unfit; anything realistic but ugly was called scurrilous;
anything ambiguous was said to undermine that great Hegelian popular will that
the Nazis were keeping under their own thumb. Lots of painters fled Germany.
The Nazis knew the importance of aesthetic uniformity in building their volk.
So does Jesse Helms.
OMC: The Nazis didn't like modern music any better than they liked modern art.
The works of the "Second Vienna School," mostly Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern,
were banned. Kurt Weill was right out, not just because he worked with Brecht.
They made everybody listen to marches and happy music, and lots of Wagner and
Mahler. Schoenberg fled to the US (and converted to Judaism; his late works
include the opera _Moses and Aron_ and the incredibly moving "A Survivor of
Warsaw"); Webern stayed in Vienna and had to conduct all this puerile dreck
that he just hated-- and (irony) was shot by an American soldier liberating
Austria. What a bummer. Webern's pieces are very short, up to about 9 minutes
long, so his complete works fit on a four record set-- and there are at least
two sets of The Complete Webern available on LP, the Boulez having a clarity
Robert Craft could never match. Webern was Zappa's third favorite composer,
after Edgard Varese and Igor Stravinsky. I don't pretend to understand him
myself, it tends to be highly abstract and almost mathematical, but it can
be fascinating listening.
Before I abandon the political thread, I'll say that whoever it was that said
he was a liberal was in fact correct, but in a more 19th century definition--
the liberalism of Hume or John Stuart Mill. That mode of thought is referred to
as "classical liberalism" nowadays. I suppose that's basically where I situate
myself too, except I have these severe attacks of intolerance where I want to
murder the thought police. The term that comes to mind for Headbanger is "Tory,"
because he's such an apologist for the state. (Except the real Tories knew their
history better, and used it to bolster their manifest-destiny type dogma.)
Henceforward, until the next interesting philosophical digression, I'll restrict
myself to just talking about music. I got the Kings' X record and it's not doing
anything for me. What am I missing?
Russ Gelinas
> [Webern] tends to be highly abstract and almost mathematical, but it can
>be fascinating listening.
Maybe that's why I like his stuff so much. I got a degree in math and
abstraction at the same time, if you get my drift ;-) I agree the Boulez
treatment is better. I really do love Webern's compositions; they just
set off some odd signals in my brain, very refreshing.
Russ
Jeff Beer
>Maybe that's why I like his stuff so much. I got a degree in math and
>abstraction at the same time, if you get my drift ;-) I agree the Boulez
>treatment is better. I really do love Webern's compositions; they just
>set off some odd signals in my brain, very refreshing.
>
>Russ
I like Webern's orchestral colors on the Orchestrastucke.
Lately I've discovered Berg, he is also a student of Schoenberg, writing
much in the 12 tone serial vein. He has been able to come up with
very lyrical sounding music.
There is the Violin Concerto, and the Lulu suite. Lulu suite is from
an opera, but the suite doesn't have much singing. But he choses tone
rows that can have tonal properties if he wants, then he can always do
operations on it to get it real atonal if he wants. But he comes of
with gorgeous and lyrical stuff. I got Boulez conducting Lulu suite.
You can always seem to trust Boulez on such works.
Jeff
BULMER STEVEN R
>OMC: The Nazis didn't like modern music any better than they liked modern art.
>The works of the "Second Vienna School," mostly Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern,
>were banned. Kurt Weill was right out, not just because he worked with Brecht.
>They made everybody listen to marches and happy music, and lots of Wagner and
>Mahler.
True enough about Wagner, who was a self-proclaimed vegetarian and anti-Semite,
but I'm not so sure about Mahler, because he was a Jew, and I don't
think it would be allowed (however, I would be very interested to learn
if he was used as propaganda in spite of his religion). Mahler (like
many others in Vienna at the time) was completely awestruck with Wagner
and his works and became a devout Wagnerian. He was so enthralled, that
he, too, became a devout vegetarian, and overlooked the anti-semitism because
of the power of the music. Mahler, unfortunately has often been presumed to
be anti-semitic because of his affinity for and association with Wagner.
-Steve B