Contents |
Introduction -- Why the league? -- What is Jewish music? the League and the dilemmas of musical identity -- Performing a "Jewish repertoire" : Weill, Schoenberg, and Bloch -- "German music," lieder, and the Austrian Franz Schubert -- Handel, Verdi, and national pride -- Beyond ethnic loyalties -- The legacy of the League. |
Review |
The Jewish Culture League was created in Berlin in June 1933, the only organization in Nazi Germany in which Jews were not only allowed but encouraged to participate in music, both as performers and as audience members. This is the first book to seriously investigate and parse the complicated questions the existence of this unique organization raised, such as why the Nazis would promote Jewish music when, in the rest of Germany, it was banned. The government's insistence that the League perform only Jewish music also presented the organization's leaders and membership with perplexing conundrums: what exactly is Jewish music? Who qualifies as a Jewish composer? And, if it is true that the Nazis conceived of the League as a propaganda tool, did Jewish participation in its activities amount to collaboration? |
Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-239) and index. |
Issued in other form | Online version: Hirsch, Lily E., 1979- Jewish orchestra in Nazi Germany. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2010 |
LCCN | 2009024922 |
ISBN | 9780472117109 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN | 0472117106 (cloth : alk. paper) |