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, <...(+)
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/Na
zi_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.
Ecrit le 2014-07-30 par Stephan Beneking Please support my classical
piano music - buy an Album!
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tist/stephan-
beneking/id583024858
You can listen to all Albums
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1155850710/playlist/754hMzwRz
bXaVixnFYdcO1
http://beneking.bandcamp.com
CDs are available on Amazon:
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ords=stephan+beneking
Printed Booklets with piano
Scores:
http://www.amazon.com/Stephan-
Beneking/e/B00IVSPXF0
Thank you for 1st prize in 2013!
Ecrit le 2013-03-23 par 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:
http://open.spotify.com/user/1
155850710/playlist/754hMzwRzbX
aVixnFYdcO1 Free Download of Booklets with
all Scores