Recommended reading on Third Reich music

[Marcus Wendel]

The idea of this sticky is to collect recommandations on good books dealing with Third Reich music.

Please post the title, author and a short (or long) explenation as to why you feel that particular title deserves to be included.

/Marcus

If you buy through the below links you not only get the books you want but you also support the forum while shopping!
* AHF Bookstore
* Amazon.com (UK, Germany)
* Abebooks

[Ivan Ž.]

Collecting Third Reich Recordings
Stuart C. McKenzie



- around 120 pages
- more than 50 photos
- near 20 pages with photos of original records

I would recommend this book only to beginners.

It has 3 parts:
1. The history of military music, Third Reich music and broadcasting
2. The pre-1945 recordings
3. The post war recordings

The book, in general, is a nice work, but without many informations.
To me, it seems more like a long introduction.

What should be one of the most important subjects in a book like this are music bands, of course;
when we collect recordings, the 3 most important things are
- recordings (list of existing / collected)
- performer
- author
Well, there is almost absolutely nothing about them,
except for the LSSAH band, which got a couple of pages in this book,
but mostly for their photos (4-5 of them).
In text about Heer bands is only mentioned (in a couple of sentences)
band of Inf.Regt."Großdeutschland" and nothing else.
You will find 10 times more in a booklet of Brandenburg Historica's CD "Großdeutschland".
Luftwaffe bands - only Regt. "General Göring" and Wachbataillon der Luftwaffe,
but, again, only in a couple of sentences. Nothing interesting, no list of their recordings (or at least some of them).
None of the Kriegsmarine bands is mentioned.

Civilian bands, vocal-groups, singers - nothing.

After this chapter is a one-page-text about music from occupied & NS countries.
There is absolutely nothing here.

Next is a fine text about recording techniques, followed by photos of shellacs,
which are probably most interesting in this book.

Final chapter is about collecting postwar LPs and CDs.
Some of them I've already mentioned here
viewtopic.php?t=120685&start=0
and I don't think I should explain how "interesting" this chapter is.

All in all, as I wrote, it is a nice little book,
but - only for future collectors...


/Ivan

[Sdt]

These books are probably interesting:

Music in the Third Reich
Erik Levi
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Third-Rei ... 0333646932

The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich
Michael H. Kater
http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Muse-Musi ... 94-1356137

[FreiDurchDieTat]

These books are probably interesting:

Music in the Third Reich
Erik Levi
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Third-Rei ... 0333646932

The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich
Michael H. Kater
http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Muse-Musi ... 94-1356137

By the sounds of the write ups, I'm sure they both have their fair share of narrow-minded condeming of ideology in favour of actual critic of music...especially the first one by "Levi".

I'd like to find a book about the "music of the Third Reich", not "music in the Third Reich" if that make any sense

I don't want to read about how composers "suffered" under the so-called "harsh regime"; rather I want to know what characterized the music that was accepted and made during this regime.

[Sdt]

Lili Marleen AN ALLEN FRONTEN
Ein Lied geht um die Welt
Das Lied, seine Zeit, seine Interpreten, seine Botschaften
Horst Bergmeier, Rainer E. Lotz und Volker Kühn

This book is sold with about 200 recordings of the song, in seven CDs.
Available here:
http://www.bear-family.de/tabel1/product/bcd16022_d.htm
http://www.amazon.de/Marleen-allen-Fron ... 3899161548

As you can see, this book is about the famous "Lili Marleen" song.
It has 180 pages and and is in large format.

The book follows a logical link, according to the performers of the song in the CDs.
There is about one page for each performance of the song. Here is described the artist, the orchestra and the little background of each recording.
There is always a photograph of the 78-RPM of each recording, which is a good thing for people who like accuracy. Most of the time, there is a photograph of the singer or the band. Several pictures of posters are also included. You will also find pictures of articles of newspapers, places, scores, lyrics etc.
Since the format is large, the photographs are in high resolution.

The important periods of the song are detailed:
-when was it written ? by who ? in what context ?
-who composed the music ?
-who made the song become famous ?
-when did the song reach its peak ? how did it happen ? who were its main performers abroad ?
-how did the song become a propaganda tool in World War II ?
-what was its relationship with the Third Reich ?
-how did it become an international hit ?
-how did it remain famous after the war ?
-what are its variants ?

All the questions are answered in the book.
Only negative point I can find is that the book is in German.

[behemoth]

Collecting Third Reich Recordings
Stuart C. McKenzie



- around 120 pages
- more than 50 photos
- near 20 pages with photos of original records

I would recommend this book only to beginners.

It has 3 parts:
1. The history of military music, Third Reich music and broadcasting
2. The pre-1945 recordings
3. The post war recordings

The book, in general, is a nice work, but without many informations.
To me, it seems more like a long introduction.

What should be one of the most important subjects in a book like this are music bands, of course;
when we collect recordings, the 3 most important things are
- recordings (list of existing / collected)
- performer
- author
Well, there is almost absolutely nothing about them,
except for the LSSAH band, which got a couple of pages in this book,
but mostly for their photos (4-5 of them).
In text about Heer bands is only mentioned (in a couple of sentences)
band of Inf.Regt."Großdeutschland" and nothing else.
You will find 10 times more in a booklet of Brandenburg Historica's CD "Großdeutschland".
Luftwaffe bands - only Regt. "General Göring" and Wachbataillon der Luftwaffe,
but, again, only in a couple of sentences. Nothing interesting, no list of their recordings (or at least some of them).
None of the Kriegsmarine bands is mentioned.

Civilian bands, vocal-groups, singers - nothing.

After this chapter is a one-page-text about music from occupied & NS countries.
There is absolutely nothing here.

Next is a fine text about recording techniques, followed by photos of shellacs,
which are probably most interesting in this book.

Final chapter is about collecting postwar LPs and CDs.
Some of them I've already mentioned here
viewtopic.php?t=120685&start=0
and I don't think I should explain how "interesting" this chapter is.

All in all, as I wrote, it is a nice little book,
but - only for future collectors...


/Ivan

Yes, and I would add that some of the German translations are not that exact. But this should not prevent one from purchasing the book.

[colt45]

The weekly Der Spiegel said the daughter of a World War II Soviet military intelligence officer showed the magazine a collection of about 100 records her father took from the Reich chancellery in Berlin when the city fell to the Red Army in 1945.

Alongside predictable recordings, such as the overture to "The Flying Dutchman" by Hitler favorite Richard Wagner, the collection included works by composers from Russia, whose people were regarded as subhuman by Nazi ideologues, according to the report.

Among the works reportedly taken by Lev Bezymenski were an aria from Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," performed by Russian bass Fyodor Shalyapin, and an album of Tchaikovsky works featuring star violinist Bronislaw Huberman _ a Polish Jew _ as a soloist. Works by Rachmaninov and Borodin were also featured in the collection.

"I find this grotesque," Der Spiegel quoted Bezymenski's daughter, Alexandra Bezymenskaya, as saying. "Millions of Slavs and Jews had to die as a result of the Nazis' racial ideology."

Artur Schnabel, a Jewish pianist from the Nazi leader's native Austria, also is among the performers in the collection, Der Spiegel said. The Schnabel family left Germany when Hitler rose to power and became U.S. citizens in 1944.

It was not clear exactly whom the records belonged to, whether Hitler himself actually listened to them, or where in the chancellery they were found.

Der Spiegel published a photograph of one record with a blue label reading "Fuehrer headquarters" and carrying an inventory number.

According to the report, Bezymenskaya only stumbled on the records, which were kept in the attic of the family dacha outside Moscow, in 1991. Three years ago, it added, she persuaded her father to write about the collection.

"These were recordings of classical music performed by the best orchestras of Europe and Germany with the best soloists of that time," Bezymenski wrote. "It surprised me that Russian music also was there."

Bezymenski, who himself was Jewish, listened to the records _ some of them now scratched and broken but mostly well-preserved _ and wrote that he occasionally lent them to musicians, Der Spiegel reported.

Bezymenski, who after the war became a historian and a professor at Moscow's military academy, died in June at 86, according to the report. His daughter has yet to decide what to do with the collection, it reported.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Sdt]

If you can read German you can find many books on the subject. If you buy CDs the booklet is often helpful and gives many interesting information.

[mjcmoran]

Dear all

I am an Australian author at present engaged on research for a new book chronicling the life of a brilliant but now forgotten Australian concert pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975). I have been given a grant by the Australia Council to complete this work.

I found the Axis History Forum whilst browsing and rare photographs of Helene Bechstein.

Perhaps somone out there can help me.

Cahill was closely involved giving concerts to the British aristocracy in London and Paris of the 1920s and 1930s. He gave concerts in Berlin in the early thirties and I believe travelled to Berchtesgaden and to give a concert at Villa Bechstein. This was before the Nazis appropriated this holiday region. He may also have played at Carinhall perhaps at Goering's 1935 wedding banquet. As you will know many of the British aristocracy were sympathetic to Hitler in his early period of power and travelled to Germany for mountain holidays. Not so popular now but I like Germany and Austria very much.

Cahill was not interested in Nazism of course, just furthering his studies and career. In fact during WW II he worked strenuously in Montreux in Switzerland giving concerts for interned troops from many countries and organising supplies for them.

I recently travelled to Berchtesgaden and found the museum on the site and the bunkers fascinating. The ruins are fast disappearing. The Obersaltzberg has magnificent scenery and I shall return for a hiking holiday myself next summer.

I would be very grateful if anyone could steer me towards anything at all on Villa Bechstein or Helene Bechstein (I found only one rare photograph of the villa on the internet). Also Goering's fete champetre parties at Carinhall were famous at the time but the only brief description I can find of them is in Chips Channon's Diaries.

Below are links for my bona fides and material and my work in progress on Cahill.

Marvellous photos on this thread.

Kind regards

Michael Moran
http://www.michael-moran.net
Blog: http://www.michael-moran.com

ul. Hieroglif 1D/2
01-972 Warsaw
Poland

[url]mjcmoran@wp.pl[/url] (primary email)
mjcmoran@michael-moran.com

Home: +48 22 834 6549
Mobile: +48784490951

[Heinrich George]

Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany:

http://www.amazon.com/Different-Drummer ... 0195165535

The author has written several other books on music in this period.

[Sdt]

I have found this book about military music during national-socialist Germany quite good (a chapter is dedicated to post-war military music in the Bundeswehr). It focuses on military musicians and bands. The information and the numerous pictures are great.