sibelius, nazi sympathizer?

[alocispepraluger102]

a strange topic, indeed, for a learned journal, and a bit of a reach, it seems to me.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Composers-Ties-to-Nazi/49256/

Edited December 6, 2009 by alocispepraluger102

[Guy Berger]

a strange topic, indeed, for a learned journal, and a bit of a reach, it seems to me.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Composers-Ties-to-Nazi/49256/

The questions are good ones to ask, but I agree that Jackson's conclusions are a reach.

[A Lark Ascending]

Old hat really. Trying to tie Sibelius to Nazism was a popular sport amongst some of the Post-1945 ultra-modernists (not remotely connected with his popularity compared with general public indifference to their music, of course!). Reading a recent bio last year I was left with the image of a man who was undoubtedly aristocratic and self-centred but far from a supporter of the regime. Like many Finns I suspect he initially would have seen the German success as a potential safeguarding of Finland from the greater menace of Russian domination, very real in the shadow of the Winter War.

The ultra-modernist claims were ironic considering the uber-hero of that group (some of who asserted the need to send a flamethrower over the Romanticism they viewed as partly responsible for the rise of nationalistic totalitarianism) was Anton Webern, a man with far more overt sympathies to the Nazis (despite his music being rejected by the regime).

[There's a summary of the way Sibelius' reputation waxed, waned and waxed again here.)

Edited December 6, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[AllenLowe]

I think she's doing a great job in HHS - I can forgive a little youthful indiscretion -