Composers in exile

In a short but dense work, Etienne Barilier examines the causes of various forms of exile and their consequences for composers and their works. While he mentions that before the 19th century, musicians most often changed cities according to the positions they obtained, it would have been interesting if he had examined the cases of expulsions and banishments following the wars of religion, not to mention situations such as that which led Johann Rosenmüller to flee. With the awakening of nationalism, it was no longer so much a question of leaving a suzerain as a homeland, a change in sentiment analyzed with finesse in the chapter devoted to Chopin's emblematic uprooting. But the bulk of the book focuses on the 20th century, certainly the best-documented period and the one during which tragic events reached unprecedented intensity. Several chapters detail the ups and downs of the lives and careers of numerous composers on the other side of the Atlantic, including Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Weill, as well as Eisler, Korngold, Tansman and many others, who had to flee the rise of Nazism, its intolerance, anti-Semitism and war. Desired or unwanted, perpetual or temporary, happy, sad or simply indifferent, other kinds of banishment are evoked, including the internal exile experienced by Hartmann and Soviet composers such as Shostakovich and Weinberg, deportation to camps such as Terezín, a terrible antechamber of horror; voluntary isolation, particularly for those who feel out of step with a period that does not correspond to their artistic aspirations; and the unavoidable loss of childhood. The modalities of these exiles are as diverse as the situations and personalities, as are the repercussions on musical production, ranging from the almost dried-up inspiration of Rachmaninov to the impassivity of Stravinsky. Acknowledged as a novelist and essayist, the author masters narration and construction, using a pleasing style and a sense of the right formula.

Étienne Barilier: Exil et musique, 224 p., € 15.00, Fayard/Mirare, Paris 2018, ISBN 9782213705576