The Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, 1938-1945

Following their entry into Austria and the Sudetenland in the late 1930s, the Germans attempted to impose a policy of cultural imperialism on the countries they went on to occupy during World War II. Almost all music institutions in the occupied lands came under direct German control or were subject to severe scrutiny and censorship, the prime objective being to change the musical fabric of these nations and force them to submit to the strictures of Nazi ideology. This pioneering collection of essays is the first in the English language to look in more detail at the musical consequences of German occupation during a dark period in European history. It embraces a wide range of issues, presenting case studies involving musical activity in a number of occupied European cities, as well as in countries that were part of the Axis or had established close diplomatic relations with Germany. The wartime careers and creative outputs of individual musicians who were faced with the dilemma of either complying with or resisting the impositions of the occupiers are explored. In addition, there is some reflection on the post-war implications of German occupation for the musical environment in Europe. Music under German Occupation is written for all music-lovers, students, professionals and academics who have particular interests in 20th-century music and/or the vicissitudes of European cultural life during World War II.

David Fanning is Professor of Music at the University of Manchester and author and editor of books, articles and critical editions on Nielsen, Shostakovich, Weinberg, Expressionism and the 20th-century symphonic tradition. An experienced chamber music pianist and accompanist, he is also active as a critic for Gramophone and the Daily Telegraph. Erik Levi is Visiting Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is author and editor of several books relating to music during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich and is active as a broadcaster and critic for BBC Music Magazine. Amongst his recent publications are Music and Displacement, co-edited with Florian Scheding (2010); Mozart and the Nazis (2010); The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century Music (2014); and Hanns Eisler and England (2014).

Introduction: the foundations of Nazi musical imperialism Section 1 Musical life, resistance and destruction in occupied European capitals 1 Composers as critics in occupied Paris 2 The Conservatoire in occupied Kiev (19 September 1941 to 6 November 1943)3 Nazi musical imperialism in occupied Poland 4 Music and musical life in occupied Athens Section 2 Adaptation and opportunism 5 The Rome-Berlin Axis: musical interactions between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in redrawing a 'New Order for European Culture'6 In search of a musical identity in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands 7 Symphonic music in occupied Belgium (1940-1944): the role of 'German-friendly' music societies 8 Music, culture and the Church in the German-occupied USSR: the Smolensk area and other provinces Section 3 Appropriations and reputations 9 Celebrating a Mozart anniversary in occupied Belgium: the Mozart Herdenking in Vlaanderen (1942)10 The ambiguous reception of Antonin Dvorak's music during the Reichsprotektorat Bohmen und Mahren (The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), 1939-1945 11 Celebrating the Nordic tone - fighting for national legacy: the Grieg Centenary, 1943 Section 4 Between two evils 12 The song collector, the year of terrors and the catastrophe that followed: a life in occupied Latvia 13 The music of Ciurlionis in the context of resistance and Lithuanian national identity during the Nazi occupation (1941-1944) 14 Power through music: strategies of the German occupation authorities in Estonia Section 5 The limits of tolerance 15 Getting away with Cultural Bolshevism: the first European performance of Porgy and Bess in Copenhagen, 1943 16 Music criticism in the Swedish Nazi daily press: the case of Dagsposten Section 6 Damaged careers 17 (Re)visiting the (Jewish) archive of Gideon Klein - Terezin, 1941-1944 18 Eugeniusz Morawski: life under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw Section 7 Symphonies of war and resistance 19 Religious patriotism and grotesque ridicule: responses to Nazi oppression in Pavel Haas's unfinished war-time Symphony 20 Paul von Klenau's Ninth Symphony: a case study 21 Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' Symphony: music of endurance Section 8 Complex and uneasy legacies 22 Listening in the Grey Zone 23 The marketing of backstories: approaches to the legacies of music composed in fraught circumstances 24 Nazism, music and Tyrolean identity 25 Bartok against the Nazis: the Italian premieres of Bluebeard's Castle (1938) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1942) 26 Contemporary music and cultural politics in Switzerland during World War II: between neutrality and nationalism