Sounds of Two Worlds:
Music as a Mirror of Migration
to and from Germany
September 2002
Music in the migration experience was the theme of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies’ most recent conference held on Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 14, 2002. The well-attended conference was both educational and entertaining, a unique melody of scholarly presentations, engaging discussions, and musical performances.
In a special pre-conference performance on Thursday evening, the Yid Vicious klezmer ensemble of Madison, Wisconsin, treated the audience to songs that ran the gamut of emotions. Their music ranged from haunting, sensuous melodies to happy, bouncy beats, creating environments ideal for slinky snake dances or that were evocative of a mad dash for the last train out of Odessa. They ended with a lullaby to help everyone get a good night’s rest before jumping into the conference.
MKI director Mark Louden opened the conference on Friday morning, welcoming the audience and presenters. He pointed out that in addition to a conference brochure, attendees should pick up a copy of a specially-prepared Liedersammlung, a booklet that included text and images associated with the talks being given throughout the conference.
Philip Bohlman from the University of Chicago gave the first presentation. He noted that it was appropriate the conference took place in September, the beginning of the Oktoberfest season, and spoke on the importance of music in Oktoberfest celebrations. Oktoberfest has migrated to the places German-speaking peoples have migrated, such as America and Brazil, and in some cases it has incorporated the musical traditions of the newly-adopted lands and people. Music, Bohlman contends, is a sound that communicates across the two worlds of the immigrant, creating a space for communicating traditions and customs while making it possible for humans to locate themselves in the spaces created.
Ursula Hemetek from the Institut für Volksmusikforschung
at the University of Vienna, Austria, explored the music of minority ethnic
groups in Austria, including Croatians, Roma, and Bosnians. She
presented examples of several songs to demonstrate
both the intellectual and emotional power of the music. For example, the Roma,
who have no country of their
own, do have a national anthem, “Gelem, Gelem.” The lyrics of this
anthem speak of traveling a long way and of the joy of meeting other Rom, signifying
the importance of solidarity among these people. A
folksong from the Croats living in the Burgenland region, “Jurto Rano,”
has the same melody of Joseph
Haydn’s “Gott erhalte.” Hemetek remarked that Haydn was no
doubt inspired by his multicultural
surroundings, making it difficult to know who borrowed from whom.
Hemetek concluded by saying that music of the minority groups in Austria is
a rich topic for ethnomusicologists, and indeed can be considered a national
treasure,
even
though most Austrians do not pay much attention to this music.
Joel Rubin, a klezmer musician living in Berlin, presented research conducted by himself and Rita Ottens on the expressions of Jewish music in Germany’s public sphere. He commented that most Jewish-culture music being performed in Germany today, specifically music in the klezmer tradition, is played by non-Jewish groups. Klezmer music is becoming stereotyped at the same time it is being appropriated by others, and this trend reveals some disturbing continuities with World War II anti-Semitism. Ironically, Rubins states, klezmer music is being played in Germany while the topic of Yiddish music itself is being silenced.
Pamela Potter of the UW-Madison spoke on German and Austrian influence on the classical music tradition in America. She noted that while World War I created a period of anti-German sentiment that seriously affected American music, for the most part Americans welcomed the large influx of composers, conductors, performers and other music-related Germans fleeing the Nazi regime during World War II.
The
first day of conference presentations concluded, participants then assembled
in beautiful Old Music Hall for a concert featuring little-known German-American
music. The pieces were selected from the Wisconsin Music Archives of the Mills
Music Library, and they were wonderfully performed to provide a remarkable evening’s
entertainment.
The concert began with an elegant and moving Symphonic
Elegy for string orchestra by Ernst Krenek (1900-1991), and was followed
by a series of songs by Edna Frida Pietsche (1894-1982)
and Hugo Kaun (1863-1932), enchantingly sung by
virtuoso mezzo-sopranist Kathleen Huegel Otterson. The audience was able to
follow along by reading the German lyrics for these songs. The final two selections
were a Canzonetta for horn and piano (Edna Frida
Pietsch) and a passionate performance of the challenging Fantasiestück
for violin and piano, op. 66 (Hugo Kaun, 1863-1932). The concert was followed
by a very pleasant reception, after which everyone wandered into the darkening
evening, heads and hearts filled with music.
Jim
Leary of the UW-Madison’s Folklore program began Saturday’s
presentations by exploring the long-standing stereotype of the “Dutchman”
as portrayed in dialect songs. Dialect songs in Wisconsin and throughout the
upper Midwest are a genre unto themselves; they often include foreign-inflected
English and present a theatrical and exaggerated image of immigrants. While
the songs have often been employed to denigrate or put down immigrant groups,
Leary claims they can sometimes be used to show fondness and appreciation of
them. Although German immigrants are often portrayed as indulging enormous appetites
for sausage, pretzels, and beer, a more positive stereotype sometimes appears
showing them to be hardworking, practical people. Leary provided several “musical
glimpses” into the Dutchman dialect style over the years, and concluded
that some of today’s performers show a certain post-modern sophistication
in their creation of German-American stereotypes.
Alan Burdette from Indiana University explored how the Germania Männerchor in Evansville, Indiana, has managed to keep a 19th-century cultural institution vital up to the present day. In the past, such music organizations not only helped to retain German culture, but also served as a bridge into American culture for immigrants. Today, few members speak German fluently or at all, but the choir continues to sing traditional songs in German. Tradition and an active calendar of social events help to define the organization, but members realize that a strict adherence to a “German only” attitude could contribute to decline. Burdette himself witnessed the rebirth of the organization as the celebration of the Männerchor’s 100th anniversary stimulated new activity and the recruitment of new members. Burdette showed a video of the German Männerchor that he shot in 1994 as they conducted various social functions throughout the year. The film, interspersed with black-and-white footage from 1948, wonderfully revealed the organization’s ability to create Gemütlichkeit among its members.
Christoph Wagner spoke on Swiss music entertainers
who traveled from Switzerland to tour the Swiss-American community circuit in
the late 19th century. Wagner read several reviews in the Swiss-American press
about such peformers as Fritz Zimmerman, Hans in der Gant, the Moser Brothers,
and the Scheidegger Seven. The reviews consistently referred to the ability
of these performers to transport listeners back to the Alpine homeland and to
help ease the homesickness of Swiss-Americans. Performers often included visual
reference to Switzerland, performing in native costume or before paintings of
alpine scenes. Wagner played recordings from the 1920s and noted that while
audiences were enthusiastic about hearing traditional Swiss songs, they were
less interested in hearing songs that were contemporary for the time. Wagner
concluded that, for Swiss-Americans, Switzerland became a fantasy world where
nothing ever changed, and they attended performances in order to nostalgically
recapture their feelings for the old homeland.
Ann Reagan, a professor of music history at the US Air Force Academy, gave an eloquent and poetic presentation on German-American music societies and nationalistic sentiment during the late nineteenth century. While German Americans have always been committed to America in all civic matters, in the cultural arena their hearts and minds remained utterly and unabashedly German. German-American music societies saw it as their mission to reveal die Macht der deutschen Musik (the power of German music) to Americans, and to show them that there is more of beauty in the world than the “almighty dollar.”
Helmut
Schmahl of the University of Mainz was the conference’s final presenter.
By means of reports written by Germans traveling in America in the 19th century,
Schmahl elaborated upon some of the themes discussed by Reagan. In these travel
reports, not much credit is given to American culture, and in particular, American
music is viewed unfavorably. Indeed, the Americans were viewed as being an unmusical
people, with the very climate conspiring to rob the people of song. One writer
walked through the forests and commented on the lack of beautiful birdsong,
echoing a similar remark by the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau that America was
a “land without nightingales.” In response to this dismal lack of
culture, writers often exhorted German immigrants to bring America to a higher
cultural level, and most especially to cultivate the American soul by means
of music and song.
Lively discussion among the audience, with contributions by many of the other conference presenters in attendance, followed each presentation.
Saturday
Evening Entertainment
The conference was concluded with three special musical performances on Saturday
evening, beginning with the Monroe Swiss Singers.
Their performance included many educational elements, including a brief
history of the Swiss in Green County, Wisconsin; examples of folksongs in Swiss
dialect; an exhibition of Fahnenschwingen, or Swiss flag-throwing; music on
alpenhorn; and discussions of authentic dress for both men and women.
Next to perform were the Madison Männerchor,
who are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. They sang traditional
German toasts, drinking songs, folksongs, sacred songs, and hunting songs, as
well as a Heimat song and a tone-poem about sunrise and the beauty of nature
(Das Morgenrot). The last few songs were in English, and lyrics were provided
to allow the audience to sing along
.
The
final act of the evening was the Jerry Schneider Polka Band,
a group that has been keeping this music tradition alive for thirty-five years
now! Couples took to the floor to dance, even if some hadn’t known how
to polka before. “I’ve learned so much at this conference, including
how to polka,” said MKI assistant director, Antje Petty, an indication
of how successful the conference had been.
This conference was sponsored by Max
Kade Institute for German-American Studies
Friends of the
Max Kade Institute
Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
Mills Music Library
Funded in part by grants from the Wisconsin
Humanities Council
and from the Wisconsin Arts Board.