On 10th of May 1933, exactly 80 years ago, Nazi student
organizations burned ten-thousands of "un-German" books
on the Opera place in Berlin. The same happened in many
other german cities.
They tried to extinguish and eradicate this part of
German culture.
Among the hundreds of poets and writers, whose books
were banned and burned, were Bertold Brecht, Albert
Einstein, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Erich Kästner,
Heinrich and Klaus Mann, Stefan Zweig and many others.
They were expat...(+)
On 10th of May 1933, exactly 80 years ago, Nazi student
organizations burned ten-thousands of "un-German" books
on the Opera place in Berlin. The same happened in many
other german cities.
They tried to extinguish and eradicate this part of
German culture.
Among the hundreds of poets and writers, whose books
were banned and burned, were Bertold Brecht, Albert
Einstein, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Erich Kästner,
Heinrich and Klaus Mann, Stefan Zweig and many others.
They were expatriated or even put into concentration
camps (e.g. Carl von Ossietzky).
Heinrich Heine, one of the most famous german poets,
wrote prohpetically already 1821 (but referring to a
burning of the Koran!):
"This is a prelude only, where they burn books, they
will in the end also burn people."
Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings
The composition:
It is difficult to catch such a frightening event like
the burning of books into music.
The piece starts with the melody "A-B-C" in the right
hand, where "A-B-C" stands for the letters on the
books.
Then follow in the middle part many "B-B"-chords, which
stand for the B-urning of the B-ooks.
In the end the piece solves from G-minor into G-major
tonality to illustrate, that the book burning was not
successful, the books still exist today and survived,
we can still read all of them.
Memorial:
Burning of books happened during all times,
unfortunately they still happen today.
That´s why it´s the artist´s duty to remind and
remember, what can happen after books are
burning...
Pianist Hal Freedman from Philadelphia / USA made an
impressive interpretation of this difficult piece,
performed on a Steinway.
On our YouTube Channels you can also watch a short
video that Hal created with some pictures of the
burning books while the music is playing.
www.youtube.com/user/hmfreedman/featured
www.youtube.com/user/steveberlin0815?feature=mhee
Hal Freedman has been a solo recitalist at colleges,
universities and various venues including the Academy
of Music in Philadelphia. He is now a well-known piano
teacher and respected recording artist.
Edition Peters is a renowned music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1800. It is particularly famous for its classical music scores. With a rich catalog that includes works by composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Mendelssohn, Peters is recognized for the quality and accessibility of its editions, which are used by musicians and educational institutions around the world.
Informations of Stephan Beneking
All my Albums on Spotify, iTunes, BandCamp etc
Written on 2014-07-30 by stephan-beneking Please support my classical
piano music - buy an Album!
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tist/stephan-beneking/id583024
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Thank you for 1st prize in 2013!
Written on 2013-03-23 by stephan-beneking THANK YOU!
"Valse melancolique No.
VIII - le desir eternel"
won the 1st prize in
Free-Scores Piano Solo Classic
contest 2013!
I would like to express my
sincere thanks to all
supporters and especially to
Carlos Márquez, without
whose fantastic interpretation
this success had never been
possible!
I am still overwhelmed by
this, because there were just
so many other fantastic works
on the contest. So I would
like to congratulate all
participants for taking part
in this contest. I listened to
all your wonderful music and
enjoyed it very much!
If you want to have the scores
/ sheet music for all 10
Valses melancoliques, you can
easily download a
"Booklet" of this
and all my other compositional
series for free here:
http://www.beneking.com/bookle
ts
Various albums on Bandcamp
available for only 5 USD.
http://beneking.bandcamp.com/
Or listen to all my pieces on
Spotify:
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155850710/playlist/754hMzwRzbX
aVixnFYdcO1 Free Download of Booklets with
all Scores