# Young Composer's Work Dropped For Nazi Melody



## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...ign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150306









"It was supposed to be a celebratory occasion, a high-profile performance of a piece given life by the orchestra that commissioned it - a young composer's music played by other young musicians.

Instead, the performance scheduled for Sunday of Jonas Tarm's music at Carnegie Hall by the highly regarded New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) has been canceled after it came to the attention of the ensemble's administration that the piece contains a quotation from the Nazi "Horst Wessel Lied."

Born in Estonia, Tarm is a 21-year-old composer studying at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 2014, he won the "First Music" prize from the NYYS, which resulted in the commission of a piece to be played by the orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Within the 9-minute piece called, in Ukrainian, Marsh u Nebuttya (March to Oblivion), Tarm says he used two musical quotes, each about 45 seconds long. The first is the anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the second is a Nazi anthem, the "Horst Wessel" song.

Tarm maintains that a piece of music should not necessitate further verbal explication. As such, he did not volunteer to tell the NYYS he was making those musical quotations within his piece, nor did he provide any background or context about his artistic intentions to the orchestra.

Absent those conversations, what resulted was that a group of youthful musicians - many of them well under the age of 18 - were unknowingly performing music they (and their parents and guardians) may have strongly objected to, whether or not they understood Tarm's artistic ideas and the context of his piece, which he now describes on his website as being "devoted to the victims who have suffered from cruelty and hatred of war, totalitarianism, polarizing nationalism - in the past and today."

Tarm turned in the Marsh u Nebuttya score in September. Rehearsals began in December and the piece was premiered in a NYYS performance at Manhattan's United Palace Theater Feb. 22. The composer wasn't able to attend that performance, but he said he was contacted afterward by NYYS conductor Joshua Gersen.

The composer says Gersen told him the performance went "quite well," aside from technical details that needed further rehearsing. In addition, Tarm claims that a friend of his in the audience told him that the piece was "well received by the audience."

The project fell apart after that first concert. According to interviews the NYYS' executive director, Shauna Quill, gave to the New York Times and to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the orchestra was not aware of Tarm's quotations until after the piece's world premiere at the United Palace Theater, when one audience member sent a letter of complaint to the orchestra, signed "A Nazi Survivor."

Tarm says that the first and only conversation he had about his work's content with the orchestra came March 2. And that at that point, NYYS made it clear to him that their decision to cancel his piece on their Carnegie Hall program was final.

"I was never contacted before to explain myself and my artistic views," Tarm says. "That was never an opportunity I was given."

"I strongly believe that the music should speak for itself," he continues. "This is the most disappointing thing about the situation for me. I felt like I had something important to say, musically speaking, and I was not able to say it. Shostakovich, Mahler, Beethoven - you cannot find any official program notes they provided at their concerts, describing what the music means to them."

He says he believes he had already provided enough in what he delivered to the NYYS. Along with its evocative title, the piece carries a dedication "to the victims of hunger and fire." The program note, in its entirety, is comprised of five lines of poetry:

Between the conception

And the creation

Between the emotion

And the response

Falls the Shadow

That poetry is an excerpt from The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot - someone infamous for his anti-Semitism. Was that citation meant to add fuel to the fire? Tarm claims not to have been cognizant of Eliot's anti-Jewish writings. "I was not aware of that context of his life," Tarm says. "I had no idea about that."

Our inquiries to the New York Youth Symphony were referred to Kimberly Kriger, a spokeswoman from Kekst and Company, a crisis-management PR firm whose team includes NYYS board member Ruth Pachman. In a lengthy press statement issued today, the organization responded, "The first time the composer revealed the source of his music was on Mar. 2, in response to our inquiry [about musical sources] ... When asked to explain the context and meaning of the piece, which would justify his use of this source, he refused."

The NYYS release continues: "This was his obligation to our orchestra as a commissioned artist and particularly important given the fact he was working with students, ages 12-22. Had the composer revealed the sources of his piece and the context under which they were used upon submission of the final commission in September 2014, the piece and the notes could have served as an important teaching moment for our students. However, without this information, and given the lack of transparency and lack of parental consent to engage with this music, we could not continue to feature his work on the program. Again, if the composer had been forthright with us from the start, this situation would not have transpired."

The NYYS declined requests for further comment from Quill and Gersen."


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Interesting whether this is a case of musical censorship. I would like to hear the piece in question but I think that composer is trying to deconstruct the Nazi mythology using that quotation based on what I read in the text?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

He should have known.


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## Revel (Feb 25, 2015)

Albert7 said:


> deconstruct the Nazi mythology


I'm lost


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Revel said:


> I'm lost


Musical quotations can be ironic or not depending on the context.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

I wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't known about Eliot's anti-Semitism. Even if he did, the poetry itself is not anti-Semitic.

Still, if he knowingly quoted a Nazi melody, he should have said so in the programme notes.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Well, it turns out to have been a brilliant move. If we could quantify publicity, we'd probably find that he's getting two or three orders of magnitude more attention than he would've gotten otherwise.

So both as art and as marketing I defend his decision. It appears that I can defend its morality as well, but that would get into politics and just at the moment I'll not rush in where talkclassical's angels fear to tread. There is a politics group.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Let's read what the composer had to say about the matter:

http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/the-composer-who-got-cancelled-at-carnegie-hall/

The question is should the program contain a disclaimer for the piece... sorry Nazi and TS Eliot quotations. Maybe, maybe not.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Does Tarn, or does he not, want to explain his use of a Nazi song in his music?

First we are told: "Tarm maintains that a piece of music should not necessitate further verbal explication." 

Then we are told that his piece is "devoted to the victims who have suffered from cruelty and hatred of war, totalitarianism, polarizing nationalism — in the past and today."

Tarm says: "I strongly believe that the music should speak for itself" and "this is the most disappointing thing about the situation for me. I felt like I had something important to say, musically speaking, and I was not able to say it. Shostakovich, Mahler, Beethoven — you cannot find any official program notes they provided at their concerts, describing what the music means to them."

But then he says: "I was never contacted before to explain myself and my artistic views. That was never an opportunity I was given."

It's a little hard to sympathize with someone so clueless as to quote a Nazi song without explaining his use of it, and so confused about whether he even believes in discussing it. Maybe when he gets a little older he'll understand these things.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

For what it's worth, most songs like this steal the music from something much older, and the _Horst Wessel Song_ is no different. However having said that, I doubt that the composer's intent was anything other than the obvious.

_The song later became known as "Die Fahne hoch" and as the "Horst Wessel Song". It was later claimed by the Nazis that Wessel also wrote the music, but it is likely that the tune was adapted from a World War I German Imperial Navy song, and was probably originally a folk song. The authorship of the melody was finally determined by a German court in 1937 as not by Wessel.[6]_


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

It all comes down to context I suppose. Tchaikovsky used excerpts from 'La Marseillaise' in his 1812 overture to indicate the approaching menace of Napoleon's armies. I would presume that this young man had similar ideas. In which case the inclusion of the extract from the 'Horst Wessel' would be perfectly legitimate.

It would be a shame to see this young composer stigmatized as an Anti-semitic Nazi for something he did in innocence.

As for artists being required to 'Explain themselves', it's a moot subject for which I have no answers.

Best wishes
Metairie Road


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Does Tarn, or does he not, want to explain his use of a Nazi song in his music?
> 
> First we are told: "Tarm maintains that a piece of music should not necessitate further verbal explication."
> 
> ...


He is a very young composer at 21 years old so give him a chance to mature things out. Historical topics are pretty ambitious for anyone to embark on so perhaps he doesn't have a full understanding of the consequences of musical quotations.

Anyone who composes at 21 years old is very impressive. And this isn't even his mature work yet. Let's give him a chance and see what he does from here before we condemn him to the wolves.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Albert7 said:


> *He is a very young composer at 21 years old so give him a chance to mature* things out. *Historical topics are pretty ambitious* for anyone to embark on so *perhaps he doesn't have a full understanding of the consequences of musical quotations.*
> 
> Anyone who composes at 21 years old is very impressive. And this isn't even his mature work yet. Let's give him a chance and see what he does from here before we condemn him to the wolves.


I don't see anyone here condemning him to the wolves, if that's what you're implying by quoting me. I pointed out that he sends mixed messages about his intentions and that he's a bit naive and immature in his grasp of the issues involved: "It's a little hard to sympathize with someone so clueless as to quote a Nazi song without explaining his use of it, and so confused about whether he even believes in discussing it. Maybe when he gets a little older he'll understand these things." Apparently you agree.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I don't see anyone here condemning him to the wolves, if that's what you're implying by quoting me. I pointed out that he sends mixed messages about his intentions and that he's a bit naive and immature in his grasp of the issues involved: "It's a little hard to sympathize with someone so clueless as to quote a Nazi song without explaining his use of it, and so confused about whether he even believes in discussing it. Maybe when he gets a little older he'll understand these things." Apparently you agree.


I was agreeing with you on the points... he is young and we will see where he goes... I haven't heard his pieces at all yet and the news made me curious.

I'm still trying to get my pal Nathan's compositions out for the world to hear. They are marvelous too.


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