The International Bruckner Society and the N.S.D.A.P.: A case study of Robert Haas and the critical edition

Musical Quarterly

Volumn 82, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 362-382

  Solvik, Morten ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 66349089179     PISSN: 00274631     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/mq/82.2.362     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. For the most recent contributions to this topic, see Benjamin Marcus Korstvedt, '"Return to the Pure Sources': The Ideology and Text-Critical Legacy of the First Bruckner Gesamtausgabe," in Bruckner Studies, ed. Timothy L. Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 91-109;
2. Bryan Gilliam, "The Annexation of Anton Bruckner: Nazi Revisionism and the Politics of Appropriation," in Bruckner Studies, 72-90
3. (also in Musical Quarterly 78, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 584-604);
4. Benjamin Marcus Korstvedt, "Anton Bruckner in the Third Reich and After: An Essay on Ideology and Bruckner Reception," Musical Quarterly 80, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 132-60 (this issue also includes an exchange of viewpoints on Bruckner and ideology between Gilliam and Manfred Wagner);
5. and Christa Brüstle, "Musik für Verehrer: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der frühen Bruckner-Rezeption," Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 51, no. 1 (Jan. 1996): 33-41.
6. For more on this topic, see especially Brüstle, "Musik für Verehrer."
7. "Da aber tönt herein aus einer reinen Kinderseele in einem reifen . . . Manne Musik, die nicht von dieser Welt, Musik, in der der kranke Mensch nicht schreit und dämmert . . . , sondern in welcher das in jedem Menschen ruhende höchste Menschliche angesprochen, vielleicht sogar aufgeweckt wird. . . . Hier waltet Re-ligio: Wiederverbindung, Wiederfinden, hier wird des Gottes Welt von Menschen neu geschaffen." Erich Schwebsch, "Zu Anton Bruckners 100. Geburtstag," Neue Musik-Zeitung 45, no. 11 (1924): 261-66 (quotation on 263).
8. For a discussion of Bruckner's co-optation in the political debate at this time, see Mathias Hansen, "Die faschistische Bruckner-Rezeption und ihre Quellen," Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 28, no. 1 (1986): 53-61. It should also be noted that this issue of the Beiträge, published by the "Association of Composers and Musicologists of the DDR" and dedicated to the topic of music and fascism, is not without a political history of its own.
9. In a letter dated 25 Apr. 1934, Armbruster informed Furreg of these parallel appointments and encouraged him as secretary of the society to congratulate the appointees (9/1, Armbruster). Furreg responded shortly thereafter in an effusive letter to Hauptmann dated 3 May 1934: 9/2, N.S.D.A.P., Kreis Leipzig-Stadt.
10. Furreg to Armbruster in a letter dated 4 May 1934: 9/1, Armbruster.
11. Such structural changes (known as Gleichschaltung) were the rule and not exceptional under the Nazi regime. For an account of similar political measures applied to a musical organization, see Pamela M. Potter, "The Deutsche Musikgesellschaft, 1918-1938," Journal of Musicological Research 11, no. 3 (1991): 151-76, esp. 159-62.
12. Deutsche Musikkultur 1, no. 4 (1936): 193-222 [henceforth: Orel].
13. "Erlag man früher der Versuchung, über Bruckner hinauszugehen, so besteht jetzt wieder die Gefahr, hinter ihm zurückzubleiben." Orel, 222.
14. Orel (201) refers to an article titled "Wiener Erstaufführung der Fünften in ihrer Originalfassung" signed "F. M." that appeared in Bruckner-Blätter 1 (1936): 1-3. "F. M.," as Orel openly speculates, refers indeed to Franz Moißl, secretary (Schriftführer) of the Bruckner Society and at that time also a leading editor of the Bruckner-Blätter. Moißl's report on Haas's lecture was in fact probably penned by Haas himself. Max Auer wrote to Robert Haas on 28 Dec. 1935 with the express purpose of soliciting a contribution for the Bruckner-Blätter regarding the "Original-Fassungen" and offering Moißl's assistance: 1/1, Auer.
15. "In Heft 4 der deutschen Musikkultur haben Sie einen Aufsatz von Kollegen Orel gebracht, der sich mit der Gesamtausgabe befasst. Die Art and Weise, in der das geschehen ist, nötigt mich zu einer klarstellenden Erwiderung, die ich Ihnen zunächst ankündigen möchte, da ich noch das Wiener Asphaltecho abwarten muss." Haas in a letter to Engel dated 6 Dec. 1936. Haas continues: "Dass ich auch über das Referat C. Schneiders keineswegs erfreut war, werden Sie sich wohl denken können." Constantin Schneider's report on the Bruckner Festival in Vienna (Deutsche Musikkultur 1, no. 4 [1936]: 240) by no means attacked Haas; it merely left open the possibility that the older editions of Bruckner's works might also possess artistic metit. 1/1, Engel.
16. See Pamela M. Potter, "Musicology Under Hitler: New Sources in Context," Journal of the American Musicological Society 49, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 70-113 (78 n. 26). See also the opening articles in the inaugural edition of the journal (1936), including a contribution by Peter Raabe, president of the Reichsmusikkammer, which opens with reflections on fundamental principles of National Socialism.
17. "Der Sinn dieser Gesamtausgabe unterscheidet sich nach meinem von Anfang an festgelegten Plan so tiefgreifend von den bisher üblichen liberalistischen Gepflogenheiten der musikalischen Philologie, dass er selbstverständlich den stätksten jüdischen Widerspruch und Widerstand reizen musste. In zwölf langen Kampfjahren sah ich mich daher genötigt, meine Auffassung gegen den jüdischen Musikverlag, gegen die jüdische Presse und auch leider gegen manche arische Mitläufer dieser Mächte zu verteidigen. Heute kann ich mit Stolz darauf verweisen, dass es mir durch vollsten persönlichen Einsatz nicht nur gelungen ist, dieses Werk vor Unterdrückung, Vernichtung oder Verstümmelung zu bewahren, sondern es vielmehr in aller Welt zur Geltung zu bringen, insbesondere im deutschen Musikleben." Typescript, Robert Haas, "Bericht zur Gesamtausgabe der Werke Anton Bruckners," 25 Apr. 1938: 10/2, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag (henceforth Haas Protocol).
18. For an account of Orel's tenure as head of the academy, see Lynne Heller, "Die Reichshochschule für Musik in Wien 1938-1945" (Ph.D. diss., University of Vienna, 1992), 51-102. Orel was appointed in March 1938, less than a week after the Anschluss, and was relieved of his duties in August of that year. In the interim, Orel led a fierce campaign to rid the faculty of all Jewish elements (see the documents relating to Orel's "reorganization" of the school in the archive of the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst: 92/Res 1938 and 94/Res 1938). Orel, who had studied under Guido Adler and had written a theory book with Hans Gal and Richard Stöhr, had previously worked closely with Jewish musicologists; nevertheless, in the May 1938 edition of Die Musik he published a vituperative article celebrating the "liberation" of Vienna's artistic world from "Jewish parasites," titled "Das Wiener Musikleben im Neuaufbau" (information cited from Heller, 56-57). It should be noted, however, that Orel spared a handful of Jewish faculty from his purge, making exceptions for individuals he felt were especially worthy. This no doubt ran against the orders he had received as head of the academy.
19. There are many histories of this stormy period in Austria; see, among others, Hellmut Andics, Österreich seit 1918 (Vienna: Fritz Molden, 1968), 145-352,
20. and Karl R. Stadler, Austria (London: Ernest Benn, 1971), 125-150.
21. Johann Herbeck (1831-1877) held leading positions in the musical life of Vienna as conductor of the concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and as codirector of the Court Opera.
22. See the critical notes to Anton Bruckner, Sämtliche Werke, 2. Band: II. Symphonie c-moll (Originalfassung), ed. Robert Haas (Vienna: Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, 1938), 1-66. Haas's work was complicated by the fact that only the first version of the Second Symphony exists in Bruckner's hand. The so-called "third" version, prepared in copy, reflects Bruckner's instructions, however, and includes newly composed material.
23. Benjamin Marcus Korstvedt also turns to Haas's "highly questionable editorial methods" and points out that "his editions of the Second and Eighth Symphonies do not correspond to any known versions Bruckner himself wrote; rather Haas conflated what he imagined Bruckner would or should have written in the best of all possible circumstances." Korstvedt, "Anton Bruckner in the Third Reich and After," 141. The point was also not lost on Haas's contemporaries. See the attack on Haas's edition in an article by Staub-Schlaepfer in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 28 Aug. 1943 and the correspondence from 1943 between Haas and Willy Hess: 1/2, Hess. After consulting Haas, Hess published a rebuttal in the same newspaper on 28 Dec. of that year.
24. Anton Bruckner, Sämtliche Werke, 2. Band: II. Symphonie c-moll (Originalfassung), 66
25. "Dagegen aber steigt in den Seelen der jungen Generation, der Seelen des XX. Jahrhunderts, die Seelenrevolution herauf. Und ohne auf diese Symptome aufmetksam zu werden, kann man auch die Musik Anton Bruckners und ihre großartige Auferstehung, vielleicht sogar überhaupt erst Geburt in den Seelen unserer Tage nicht begreifen." Schwebsch, "Zu Anton Bruckners 100. Geburtstag," 263;
26. "So wie der Führer . . . unbeirrt und besessen von der Wahrhaftigkeit seiner Sache seinen Weg ging, so stritt Karl Hasse. . . . Und wie unsre sieghafte Bewegung, so hatte auch Karl Hasse all das zu durchleben, zu überstehen, was jene Herzlosen ihm entgegenwarfen." Hans Hinkel, introduction to Karl Hasse, Vom deutschen Musikleben: Zur Neugestaltung unseres Musiklebens im neuen Deutschland (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1933), [3].
27. "Nicht aus philiströsen Erwägungen, sondern aus dem Instinkt der Seele." Schwebsch, "Zu Anton Brückners 100. Geburtstag," 263; cited in Brüstle, 38.
28. Heinz Drewes, a conductor who had worked in Weimar and Altenburg, was appointed head of the newly created music division of the Propaganda Ministry in November 1936. In March 1937 he became the vice president of the Reichsmusikkammer. Drewes proved instrumental in Goebbels's plans to keep policy decisions regarding musical culture firmly in the hands of the Propaganda Ministry; see Erik Levi, Music in the Third Reich (London: Macmillan, 1994)
29. especially chap. 2, "Music and State Control," 14-38;
30. see also Michael H. Kater, The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), esp. 20-22 and 189.