Styles and InfluencesBorn and trained in Munich, Hartmann was exposed during his formative years to the modernist tradition in which Stravinsky was such a major figure. Growing up with parents who were firmly on the political left and a brother who was a card-carrying communist, he was a dedicated antifascist before Hitler came to power. As a student, he became estranged from his traditionalist composition teachers at the Munich Academy due to his affinity for jazz, his enthusiasm for Stravinsky and Bartok and his experimentation with new musical idioms such as Expressionism, Futurism and Dadaism. His engagement as a socialist manifested itself through the music he wrote for texts by Karl Marx and the German communist poet Johannes Becher. Already in 1933, he had quoted a Jewish folk song in his String Quartet No. 1, the first of many politically-charged compositions to come. Aesthetically and politically, Hartmann was already well-defined when he sought further mentorship with the known antifascist Hermann Scherchen in 1933.
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Internal Exile
For Germany, the year of 1933 marked a turning point. For Hartmann as an artist, it was significant as well. Scherchen’s commitment to new music inspired the previously footloose young composer to develop a personal stylistic voice. His output began to expand in scale and maturity, coinciding with the accession of Nazi tyranny. At this point, he could have taken advantage of the vacuum left by the departure and persecution of so many composers and secured his own reputation, yet he chose to go into ‘internal exile’. This elusive term emerged in the post-war correspondence between Thomas Mann and Frank Thiess, referring to those artists that remained in Third Reich Germany but did not publish or participate in party events, whether for political or aesthetic reasons.[20] Thus, Hartmann remained quiet to the German public, continuing his compositional activities in private but not allowing a single work to be performed in Germany. He had to seek income elsewhere on international platforms. His boycott of German concert halls was possible because only one of his works had been published previously, the rest were still manuscripts, thus giving him control over their dissemination. As he was still in the developmental phase of his career, he was also not seen as influential enough to pose a threat to the Nazis, unlike Hindemith. Though he was not supposed to leave Germany without official permission from the Reichsmusikkammer, he ignored it and travelled frequently to Switzerland, Prague or London for performances of his music.[21] Financially, this was not a sustainable solution, but Hartmann benefitted from the generosity of his father-in-law. Furthermore, although he was a member of the RMK by default, he ignored their requests to provide evidence of the ‘lineage’ of himself and his wife without serious consequences. [22] It was nevertheless a risk not to align himself with the party, but whether he was aware of it or not, Hartmann benefitted from the grey areas of policy and sloppiness in executive management.
Hartmann later stated that the events of 1933 – the rise of National Socialism and Hitler – provoked him to “set down a commitment, not out of despair and fear before that power, but as a confrontation”. He was convinced that “freedom would triumph, even if it meant (their) destruction”[23], and such was the defiant spirit typical of his music. Short of fighting the Nazis, this may have been the most effective manner of political opposition possible without practically committing suicide and endangering his family. At any rate, it ensured he would not contribute to the pool of musicians already being exploited by the Nazis for their propaganda. It required a certain degree of courage and morally was equally defensible. In his social environs, he continued to associate himself with anti-Nazis. His decision to cut himself off from musical life in Germany was an act of conscience which he sustained more consistently than any other German artist. As such, when the war ended in 1945, Hartmann was one of the rare few musicians who had survived the Third Reich and remained intellectually uncompromised, his integrity as an artist and individual untainted by fascism. After the war, he was at the forefront of the restoration of German musical culture with the Musica Viva series.
Hartmann later stated that the events of 1933 – the rise of National Socialism and Hitler – provoked him to “set down a commitment, not out of despair and fear before that power, but as a confrontation”. He was convinced that “freedom would triumph, even if it meant (their) destruction”[23], and such was the defiant spirit typical of his music. Short of fighting the Nazis, this may have been the most effective manner of political opposition possible without practically committing suicide and endangering his family. At any rate, it ensured he would not contribute to the pool of musicians already being exploited by the Nazis for their propaganda. It required a certain degree of courage and morally was equally defensible. In his social environs, he continued to associate himself with anti-Nazis. His decision to cut himself off from musical life in Germany was an act of conscience which he sustained more consistently than any other German artist. As such, when the war ended in 1945, Hartmann was one of the rare few musicians who had survived the Third Reich and remained intellectually uncompromised, his integrity as an artist and individual untainted by fascism. After the war, he was at the forefront of the restoration of German musical culture with the Musica Viva series.
His Music
Although this study only focuses on two of Hartmann’s works, the full extent of his output was much greater, and documents the progression of political events and the war. He expressed his sentiments explicitly in program notes, titles, choice of subjects, and dedications to victims of the Reich. He achieved the same through more subtle, implicit manners in the use of atonal methods, themes and stylistic fragments derived from Jewish liturgy, and frequent thematic citations of music by defamed composers. His opera, Des Simplicius Simpliccisimus Jugend (1934-35), was based on Grimmelshausen’s 17th century account of the Thirty Years War, thereby anticipating the Second World War. The opera concludes with the rising of the peasant masses and parodies the typical formula of Nazi music by substituting the German folk song with a Jewish one, replacing the resilient young hero with an antihero, and including a chorale proclaiming a Reich of peace. The style contains expressions hated by the Nazis, such as Sprechgesang, fusing tonal and atonal structures, and references to Bartok, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Later works included the symphonies Sinfonia Tragica (1940-43) and Klagegesang (1944-45), and the Second Piano Sonata (1945). Ever critical of his works, Hartmann spent considerable time and effort after the war reworking parts of his wartime symphonies into some of what we recognise today as his eight symphonies.
To fully appreciate the level of integrity it took for a composer like Hartmann to maintain artistic autonomy in tumultuous times, one must remember the risk involved for an artist to appear as anything but pro-Nazi, for in times of war and extremism, there is little room for an artist to claim to be politically neutral. Not only did Hartmann remain intellectually uncompromised, he also made a defiant political statement through his music and personal associations, neither of which were ambiguous in demonstrating his anti-fascist stance.
To fully appreciate the level of integrity it took for a composer like Hartmann to maintain artistic autonomy in tumultuous times, one must remember the risk involved for an artist to appear as anything but pro-Nazi, for in times of war and extremism, there is little room for an artist to claim to be politically neutral. Not only did Hartmann remain intellectually uncompromised, he also made a defiant political statement through his music and personal associations, neither of which were ambiguous in demonstrating his anti-fascist stance.
[20] "Composers." The OREL Foundation, accessed March 15, 2016, http://orelfoundation.org/index.php/composers/article/karl_amadeus_hartmann/.
[21] Erik Levi, Introduction to The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century Music, edited by Erik Levi (Vienna: Böhlau, 2014), 12.
[22] Michael Kater, Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 91.
[23] Kater, The Twisted Muse, 232.
[21] Erik Levi, Introduction to The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century Music, edited by Erik Levi (Vienna: Böhlau, 2014), 12.
[22] Michael Kater, Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 91.
[23] Kater, The Twisted Muse, 232.