Styles and InfluencesBorn and educated in Vienna, where he studied with Schoenberg, Ullmann was part of the Austro-German musical tradition and was absorbed in the many cultural and artistic movements of Vienna’s pre-war period. The depth of Schoenberg’s influence on his compositional style, especially in the years before the war, is best described in a letter to Karl Reiner in 1938 – “to the Schoenberg school, I owe strict, i.e. logical architecture and the penchant for adventures in the world of sound”.[26] His early works, such as the Schoenberg Variations, employs the techniques of inversion, retrograde, and transposition. While this logic remained a prominent feature of his later works, including Der Kaiser von Atlantis, where much of the work’s structure depends on leitmotifs, he developed a more personal sound and harmonic idiom. In the same letter to Karl Reiner, he expressed his intention to “explore the unexhausted possibilities of tonal, functional harmony, or to fill the gap between the romantic and ‘atonal’ harmony”.[27] While in Prague during his twenties, he was also exposed to more diverse musical languages, coming in close contact with Zemlinsky, and having a great appreciation for the music of Mahler and Berg.
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Terezín
Ullmann was deported to the Theresienstadt camp in the garrison city of Terezín in September 1942, after prior attempts to escape Czechoslovakia. The Freizeitgestaltung (a group for cultural activities) had already been established, where the musical activities represented only part of a broader cultural life encompassing theatre, lectures, poetry and some sports. The scope and frequency of these activities may seem unbelievable, but for the Jews detained in concentration camps, they were allowed some freedom of movement when not involved in work detail or the running of the camp itself. This was not exclusive to Theresienstadt, as the Warsaw Ghetto had a symphony orchestra, the Vilna ghetto had a contest as late as 1943, and even Auschwitz had bands playing, sometimes for the fellow prisoners, sometimes for the entertainment of SS officials.[28] Yet, the musical life in the Terezín ghetto is unique, as the camp was run by the Council of Jewish Elders, who negotiated concessions from the Nazis, and eventually, the Nazis exploited the ghetto as a model camp for propaganda purposes, not only permitting, but directly ordering many of these activities for the visits of the International Red Cross Committee.[29] By this time, the rest of Europe and all occupied territories had been completely cut off from any Jewish utterance. The Nazis tolerated these activities as they considered all Jews as good as dead by the time they reached the camps, and their morbid attitude was to “let them have their fun; tomorrow they will no longer exist”.[30]
For the prisoners, this was an opportunity for the expression of defiance through artistic means, a means to keep their spirits alive despite facing certain death, and an effective distraction from the grim realities of life. Moreover, many of the prisoners at Terezín were prominent members of the intelligentsia. For such people, music was not a pastime, entertainment or social obligation, but rather, a way of life. It was as integral a part of their lives as basic human needs such as food and drink. Thus, their insistence on sustaining cultural activities while imprisoned is symbolic of a deliberate choice to keep their voices alive.
For the prisoners, this was an opportunity for the expression of defiance through artistic means, a means to keep their spirits alive despite facing certain death, and an effective distraction from the grim realities of life. Moreover, many of the prisoners at Terezín were prominent members of the intelligentsia. For such people, music was not a pastime, entertainment or social obligation, but rather, a way of life. It was as integral a part of their lives as basic human needs such as food and drink. Thus, their insistence on sustaining cultural activities while imprisoned is symbolic of a deliberate choice to keep their voices alive.
However, it must be emphasised that Theresienstadt has served to enhance, not to impede, my musical activities, that by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, and that our endeavour with respect to Arts was commensurate with our will to live, And I am convinced that all those who, in life and in art, were fighting to force form upon resisting matter, will agree with me. |
For Ullmann, his time at Theresienstadt proved to be very productive, not merely in terms of compositional output, but also as a music critic, organiser of rehearsals and presenter of concerts in the “Studio for New Music”. It was the period of the most concentrated compositional creativity in his life. As if he felt that time was running out, he completed sixteen known compositions, of which the opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, is the most momentous. Among his lesser works are arrangements of Hebrew and Yiddish songs for choral groups. Still, despite their diminutive scale, there is some significance in them. Perhaps, for the first time in his life, Ullmann became aware of his ‘Jewishness’ only in Terezín, as he had never been a religious person despite marrying three women of his faith.[31] His Piano Sonata No. 7 also contained a Hebrew song. A more sophisticated view of his stay in Terezín and its effects on his artistic growth are reflected in the quote below, which explains how he overcame the physical with the spiritual by comparing his present circumstances with his past, normal life.
Goethe’s maxim: “Live within the moment, live in eternity” has always revealed to me the enigmatic meaning of Art…Theresienstadt was and is for me the school of Form. Earlier, when one did not felt the impact and burden of material life, because they were erased by comfort…it was easy to create beautiful forms. Here, where even in daily life one must overcome matter by the power of the form, where anything connected with the Muses is in utter contrast to the surroundings…"[32]
Prior to his deportation to Theresienstadt, he had not done well financially, failing to secure regular performances of his works in the 1930s. Paradoxically, internment liberated Ullmann creatively and enabled him to focus on his compositions and provided more opportunities for his works to be performed.This raises a crucial, albeit thorny issue about how environments can affect creativity, and if difficult circumstances are themselves the catalysts of creativity.
[26] Kristof Boucquet, ““The Transformation of Viktor Ullmann’s Compositional Language.” in The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century Music, edited by Erik Levi (Vienna: Böhlau, 2014), 144.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Joža Karas, Music in Terezín 1941-1945 (New York: Pendragon Press, 1985), 191.
[29] Karas, Music in Terezín 1941-1945, 62.
[30] Ibid., 18.
[31] Ibid., 117.
[32] Ibid., 196.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Joža Karas, Music in Terezín 1941-1945 (New York: Pendragon Press, 1985), 191.
[29] Karas, Music in Terezín 1941-1945, 62.
[30] Ibid., 18.
[31] Ibid., 117.
[32] Ibid., 196.