Unit information: Music and the Holocaust in 2019/20

Unit name	Music and the Holocaust
Unit code	MUSI20105
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Scheding
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The Holocaust remains one of the most atrocious crimes committed in human history. Perhaps disturbingly, music played its part in the Holocaust, and it did so on all sides. It was instrumentalised and institutionalised in the Nazi state, and yet it also accompanied the victims. In the first half of this unit, we will explore how music functioned in the Nazi state as a tool for cultural exclusion in institutions such as the Jüdischer Kulturbund; how a variety of musics were branded “degenerate”; and how music was used as torture but also as vocal resistance in ghettos and concentration camps. The second half of the unit will shift our focus towards the musico-cultural legacies of the Holocaust. We will begin by discussing the works of Holocaust survivors such as Aleksander Kulisiewicz and György Ligety, and finally turn our attention to memorial works and to what has become known as the “Holocaust Industry”.

This unit aims are:

• to introduce students to a repertory of 20th -century music embracing both art music and popular styles;
• to set a repertory of 20th-century music in its artistic and aesthetic contexts;
• to allow students to engage with critical texts about music and politics;
• to develop students’ skills in critical listening;
• to develop students’ skills in the oral and written presentation of their ideas.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit, a successful student will be able to

1) demonstrate extensive knowledge of the political history of music during the Third Reich

2) show familiarity with the various forms, places, and functions of music in the sites of the Holocaust

3) demonstrate substantial knowledge of the literature and the archival resources available, and the scholarly discourses, methodologies, and terminologies of Holocaust Studies

4) write critically and perceptively about cultural as well as musical legacies of the Holocaust since 1945

5) Argue effectively and at length about the connections between ideology, politics and music relevant for the topic (including the ability to cope with methodological complexity)

6) Describe, evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking about politics and music in the context of the Holocaust

Teaching Information

weekly two-hour seminar

Assessment Information

• Individual workfile (70%). ILO 1 - 5

 ''750-word blog entries for each of any four weeks of the unit, summarising the key points of the material encountered in pre-class reading and responding to it critically. Students must submit four posts in order to gain credit for the unit. Towards the end of the unit, students choose 3 entries to submit without revision as their workfile for a summative mark.'' 

• In-class individual or group presentation of 10 minutes (30%). ILO 1, 3, 4, 6.

Reading and References

1. Shirli Gilbert, Music in the Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
2. Guido Fackler, ‘Music in Concentration Camps 1933-1945’, Music and Politics 1/1 (2007)
3. Erik Levi, Music in the Third Reich. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994.
4. Philip V. Bohlman, Jewish Music and Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
5. Tina Frühauf and Lily E. Hirsch, Jewish Music and Germany after the Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
6. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. 2nd edition. London: Verso, 2003.