Posted on 07/23/2008 12:08:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
BARLETTA, Italy -- Collecting music written in internment camps before and during World War II may n ot occur to everyone but that has been Francesco Lotoro's quest since 1991. "To allow the musicians to continue to work was also a way to control them better," said the 44-year-old Italian Jew. "At Auschwitz, there were seven orchestras."
Lotoro has amassed some 4,000 pieces, all composed between March 1933, when the Nazis' Dachau death camp was opened soon after Hitler won absolute power, and the end of World War II in 1945.
But while much is from Nazi camps, Lotoro's collection covers internment camps from both sides of the war.
"I'm collecting all the music, written not just in Europe but also in Asia: Jewish religious songs, hymns by Dutch Quaker pastors, gypsy songs or those of an American, Edmund Lilly, held in a camp in the Philippines, and ballads by Italian soldiers held by the Allies," he said.
Carefully archived in Lotoro's office in Barletta, southern Italy, much of the music has never been recorded.
The son of distinguished Czech composer Rudolf Karel, who died at the Theresienstadt camp near Prague in 1945, gave Lotoro a photocopy of a five-part composition written on toilet paper.
In a music shop in Prague, Lotoro met Eliska Kleinova, the sister of Gideon Klein, who was the organizer of cultural life at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic and died in the gas chambers of Fuerstengrube.
Lotoro, himself an accomplished musician who studied under the celebrated French pianist Aldo Ciccolini, took home the music to a sonata Klein composed at Theresienstadt, whose Czech name is Terezin.
"I started studying it. There were a lot of mistakes. I corrected them, recorded it and sent it to Eliska. She was thrilled. It was a very difficult piece," Lotoro said.
At the camp, musicians were allowed to play a piano for half an hour a day, which may explain anomalies in some pieces.
"The piano lost some of its reality," said Lotoro, who sports a black beard and small round glasses.
"The musician composed in his head, and the physical limits of the instrument didn't exist anymore. These pieces reflect a special sort of ventilation."
Interesting.....
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Thanks nickcarraway. |
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Wasn’t Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” composed in an internment camp? I thought I remember hearing that, and that the parts were actually composed for specific instruments that were broken, so certain notes were avoided.
GNIP...
Only later did I learn of his background. His distinctive accent was a product of his upbringing in Vienna where he excelled as a musician, conductor, and composer. Seeking to expand his horizons, he took on work in Dusseldorf where to his utter dismay, he witnessed the first book burnings in 1933.
Fleeing to Vienna he found no refuge and as a Jew was arrested and sent to Dachau. Recognizing the need to uplift their human spirit, he organized a clandestine orchestra for the prisoners using makeshift instruments and performing in a latrine. He composed a piece of music, “Dachau Lied,” Dachau Song, for which his friend and fellow prisoner Jura Soyfer wrote the lyrics. This song became an anthem among the prisoners and was passed from camp to camp.
Zipper was transferred to Buchenwald, where his release was secured with the help of his family and a bribed official at the Guatemalans consulate. Traveling on a Guatemalan passport he went to Manila to direct the Manila Symphony Orchestra. Incredibly, the Japanese invaded and he was again imprisoned. Prior to his capture, he assisted the United States Navy by radioing information about Japanese ships in the Harbor. After liberation he organized concerts for US troops.
After the war, Zipper and his wife moved to the United States, where he became a citizen and embarked on a long career composing, conducting and especially, teaching. He inspired countless others with his passionate belief in the essential role of the arts in giving expression to the fullness of the human spirit.
Inspired by his story, Paul Cummins put it in writing as the book “Dachau Song: the Twentieth Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper.” In 1995 a documentary of Dr. Zipper’s life was made, the Oscar nominated film, “Never Give Up.”
So all you whiners out there, knock it off. And go forth in November and vote for a man who knows something about the indominability of the human spirit.
Dachau wasn't a death camp, but I suppose we can't expect the China Post to have much knowledge of European history.
Technically Dachau wasn’t a death camp, but enough people perished there to justify the China Post for calling it one in my opinion.
Did they find the original score for “Springtime for Hitler”?
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