kagablog

Dear Colleagues,

There are a few points that I would like to address in the comments by professors Lucia and Muller.

Prof. Lucia writes: “hartmann was sympathetic to national socialism and tried (unsuccessfully it seems) to divorce his half-jewish wife in order to retain a high position at the vienna hochschule before he was somehow forced to leave and without too much hassle found his way to sa, where he was immediately appointed as lecturer at rhodes university.”

This is not what I said; I thought my report was more complicated and nuanced than that. What I attempted to demonstrate from the documents was that it SEEMED that Hartmann was planning to divorce his putatively half-Jewish wife in order to retain his position. But Orel had his doubts about Hartmann’s sincerity; furthermore, he - Hartmann - had not provided any proof of having done so. Orel also suspected that Hartmann was NOT truly sympathetic to National Socialism because he had volunteered for a leadership position in the Patriotic Front, which Orel probably rightly claimed showed Hartmann’s true political orientation: Hartmann was an Austro-Fascist, but not a Nazi. As Michael Haas observed, the Austro-fascists were trying to resist German Nazism and retain Austria’s independence. Orel also believed that Hartmann was lying about his intention to divorce his wife and join the Party. Obviously, the new Nazi-controlled Education Ministry also suspected Hartmann of dissimulation, otherwise he might not have been dismissed.

My larger point is that the documents show the lengths to which a person MIGHT go to hold onto his position and avoid exile. In such extreme situations, angels are few and far between. My point was that Hartmann was certainly not lily-white. But in being a shade of gray, he was no exception, certainly among artists and musicians, who, as I suggested, have been all too willing to serve any master, regardless of the circumstances, as long as they could retain their prestige, power, and income. The claim that “Hartmann was sympathetic to National Socialism” is a stretch; better to say that he /appears /to have tried to accommodate with it in order save his job and livelihood. In connection with the Hartmann case, I also mentioned Hindemith and Sibelius. A careful review of the documents shows that Hindemith too wiggled and squirmed mightily in the hope that he might be able to stay in Germany. In retrospect, Hindemith was fortunate that Hitler simply hated him personally and he was kicked out. And, Sibelius, even though by 1943 he was fully aware of the criminal anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime, continued to take its money and collaborate in various ways right up to the bitter end.

Hartmann was infinitely fortunate that Prof. Smeath-Thomas of Rhodes University decided to hire him. In Hartmann’s case, no commission composed of Afrikaners or of ex-Nazis or others was involved: Hartmann was hired by Smeath-Jones, the Master of Rhodes University, who saved his career and possibly his life and that of his wife and daughter. Smeath-Jones deserves further investigation. A chemist, he remained at the University of Liverpool after he had obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in 1908 and worked his way up through the ranks until in 1919 he was awarded his Doctorate and appointed Senior Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry. He was appointed Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town in 1923 and held the post until 1938 when he was elected to the Mastership of Rhodes University College, Grahamstown. Thus, Smeath Jones must have come into contact with and hired Hartmann soon after he became Master.

Unfortunately, our knowledge of Hartmann’s biography is still too sketchy to allow a detailed correlation of the life with the music. After the conference, I spent a morning in the archives of the University of Capetown. I discovered that the beautiful fair copy of “Grahamstown Mass,” the great song of atonement and thanksgiving that Hartmann completed shortly after his arrival in South Africa in the summer of 1939, is dedicated to his wife and daughter (the pencil draft bears no dedication). Was this composition somehow connected with Hartmann’s earlier thoughts of abandoning them to save his career? And then another curious fact: among Hartmann’s large-scale works, the “Grahamstown Mass” was the only one never to be performed. Is this because the forces required were simply too large, or were the biographical associations just too painful?

Regarding the affair that seems to be behind “The Song of the Four Winds,” again I learned only after the conference the following: Hartmann did have an affair with his teacher Franz Schmidt’s daughter Emma, apparently a great beauty, who died from complications of childbirth in 1932 (whose child?). Apparently, Schmidt experienced a spiritual and physical breakdown after her death, but achieved an artistic revival in his Fourth Symphony of 1933 (which he inscribed as “Requiem for my Daughter”) and, especially, in his oratorio “The Seven Seals.” Surely, Hartmann must have heard Schmidt’s Fourth Symphony, premiered in Vienna in 1934. Was he present at the premiere of Schmidt’s oratorio on 15 June 1938? This would have taken place not long after the events described in Orel’s report, which is dated March 31, 1938, i.e., during the very difficult period when Hartmann was desperately trying to leave Austria. Is this affair referred to in “The Song of the Four Winds,” or is it a later affair in South Africa? If it is the earlier affair, are there also musical connections between “The Song of the Four Winds” and the related pieces by Schmidt - in addition to those discussed with Joseph Marx (Hartmann’s other composition teacher), Mahler, Puccini, and Bruckner?

I would be in favor of a publication arising out of the conference. I found the level of the presentations high, and the diverse yet related topics fascinating. People will, of course, have the opportunity to refine and expand their presentations, and perhaps the organizers can contribute an introduction addressing some of the excellent points raised by our colleagues.

Best wishes,

Tim Jackson, Ph.D.
Professor of Music Theory
College of Music
University of North Texas