Aesopian Language in the Music of the Theresienstadt Prisoners
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Abstract
The study of the phenomenon of “repressed music” of the Third Reich is often associated with the search for subtle hints, secret signs, hidden messages, which together form a single sign system – the Aesopian language. Aesopian language in art is an invariable companion of totalitarian cultures. One of the striking examples of its active use was the music written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
In foreign musicology, this problem is reflected in a large amount of works, while in Russian studies of Aesopians, the language as a phenomenon of Western European music is still poorly understood. The author of this article, using the hermeneutic and musical-analytical method, relying on cultural, historical and biographical facts, examines various manifestations of the Aesopian language in the musical works of the Terezienstadt composers.
Imprisoned in the Czech castle Terezin, four composers of Jewish origin – V. Ullmann, G. Klein, P. Haas and H. Krasa – captured in their works the spirit of resistance, bitter laughter over the world, and difficult personal tragedies. Their addressees were different: close friends and relatives (“Al s’fod” by P. Haas), prisoners of Theresienstadt (Passacaglia and fugue by H. Krasa), Slavs and Jews (“Four songs on the words of Chinese poetry” by P. Haas, Sonata No. 7 by V. Ullmann), contemporaries and descendants (G. Klein՚s String Trio). Composers cleverly maneuvered, hiding with the help of language “screens” “signs-signals” and “signs-contradictions”, which were understandable only to a limited circle of listeners. Thus, music became for them the most important means of communication, a way of inner liberation.
Keywords: Aesopian language, Theresienstadt, repressed music, Victor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krasa.
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