By Davida Navarre (and daughter Ruth), Special to JTNews
Twentieth-century history is rife with examples of inhumanity. The Holocaust stands as one of the largest in cultural and literal genocide. One defining aspect of the Shoah was its uniquely Jewish voice. After decades of struggle with silence, however, this voice is beginning to make itself heard. An important part of this process is Seattle’s Music of Remembrance. Artistic Director Mina Miller’s meticulous research, and apt musical commissions have resulted in twice-yearly concerts and their first CD, “Art From Ashes (vol 1),” (Innova 578; www.musicofremembrance.org; 206-365-7770). Raw and tender, aesthetic and grating, international and local, “Art From Ashes” is a must-hear for those interested in how the Shoah speaks to us today.
The disc presents compositions by Robert Dauber and Erwin Schulhoff, musicians whose lives ended in the camps, and by one who made it to the United States, Herman Berlinski, as well as MOR’s 21st-century commissions to two American composers, David Stock and Paul Schoenfield. With one notable exception, all performances are by Seattle musicians, including some of the Seattle Symphony’s most accomplished players.
In David Stock’s “A Vanished World,” our overall favorite, familiar melodies are backed by alien chords. Inspired by the well-known photographs of Roman Vishniac, the piece opens with “Sholom Aleichem,” then breaks away into thematic expansions. The mystical background harmonies are clearly something new, yet a surprising complement to the traditional melodies. The unusual combination of flute, harp and viola creates a delightful musical complement of wind treble & string alto. The viola enriches the voice of the Ashkenazic fiddle. The flute is a slender and trembling voice, like a candle flame surrounded by darkness, while the harp is mysterious and foreboding.
Aleksander Kulisiewicz’s “Camp Songs,” cynical, mocking poems written in the camps, reach their fullest potential in Paul Shoenfield’s raw, blatant interplay between the squalid and the lyrical: “Whether it’s by night or day/I burn corpses — jump for joy…/I’d like some kiddies, too./I wish I had 100 chimneys/Like they have in Birkenau…/We’ll smoke by night and we’ll smoke by day…/Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!”
Schoenfield bounces the words between Semitic melodies, classic harmonies, and cabaret motifs.
Mezzo-soprano Julie Mirel alternates with baritone Erich Parce in this set of six songs with chamber ensemble, including the composer at the piano.
Additional tracks include Erwin Schulhoff’s versatile, flamboyant 1923 quartet using then-new notions of rhythm and tonality with traditional musical forms in an engaging dance suite. Herman Berlinski’s “Sonata for Flute and Piano” translates a traditional Jewish prayer mode, solemn and celebratory, into what the composer describes as his own personal affirmation as a Jew.
Seattle may be on the international map for high tech, coffee, and aeronautics, but not, historically, for Jewish classical music. What Music of Remembrance has done with this disc is to grow a grass roots organization into an international player, with grace, talent, and power. We eagerly anticipate the upcoming volumes.
Davida Navarre, Ph.D., is an avid music aficionado and history buff. Ruth Navarre, age 13, studies viola with Helen Callus and is a student at Seattle Conservatory of Music.