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Reflecting on his experiences at Auschwitz, Primo Levi eloquently conveyed the inadequacy of language to express the profound destruction inflicted upon humans. These challenges are often encountered when attempting to articulate the atrocities of the Holocaust.
In the book Time’s Echo, Jeremy Eichler delves into the idea that music has the power to communicate what words cannot. Specifically, Eichler explores the works of four esteemed composers — Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, and Dmitri Shostakovich — who created compositions as a means of witnessing and remembering the Holocaust.
Eichler, a critic and cultural historian, embarks on a quest to decipher the historical significance embedded within Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw (1947). This musical piece depicts the story of a concentration camp survivor and has been hailed as “the greatest memorial ever dedicated to the Holocaust” by Milan Kundera. Through a blend of biographical, musical, philosophical, and historical analysis, Eichler examines how such music contributes to Holocaust commemoration.
While classical music is often overlooked in discussions of World War II, Eichler persuasively argues that the creation and performance of musical works hold significant political weight. By delving into Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony, which incorporates Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem commemorating the victims of the Babi Yar massacres, Eichler unveils the inflammatory nature of Shostakovich’s choice.
During the war, the Soviet Union concealed the massacres, even resorting to flooding the ravine where the atrocities occurred. Yevtushenko’s poem, published in 1961, explicitly states, “There is no monument over Babi Yar,” serving as a fierce political statement. Shostakovich faced intense pressure to cancel the symphony’s premiere, and despite criticism from the Soviet press, he defiantly proceeded. By making the atrocities audible, Shostakovich and Yevtushenko subverted the government’s attempts to erase them.
A notable aspect of Eichler’s book is its connection to contemporary debates and controversies surrounding Holocaust remembrance. For instance, the Thirteenth Symphony was not published in Russia with the original text until 2006, and the Vienna Philharmonic has yet to perform it. In Germany, access to certain materials concerning Richard Strauss’s wartime activities was denied, shedding light on how the past continues to shape the present.
Eichler predominantly focuses on well-known compositions, aimed at encouraging classical music enthusiasts to engage with these works from a fresh perspective. However, it raises questions about the fate of lesser-known composers and whether women also created pieces commemorating the Holocaust.
Despite any potential gaps, Time’s Echo is a poignant and thought-provoking addition to the extensive literature on World War II. It offers profound reflections on the nature of remembrance, the selectiveness of collective memory, and the inherent political dimensions of national commemorations.
Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler, Faber £25, 400 pages/Knopf $30
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