When the First World War broke out in 1914, the musical world did not remain unaffected. Artists inevitably became involved, either as soldiers at the front or as composers of patriotic music or musical memorials to a lost world. The three-part documentary series investigates the (un)known, overt and hidden connections between music, war and revolution. The fates of young rebels such as Arthur Lourié, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Mosolov or Leon Theremin reveal much about the once hopeful and tragic entanglement with art and politics to which so many artists fell victim during the First World War, the October Revolution and the early Soviet Union’s cultural life. “Silenced”, the 2nd part rediscovers the long-banished and forgotten Russian composers of the early twentieth century who flirted with futurism, wrote the first twelve-tone chord of musical history or invented the first electronic musical instrument. “Silenced” sheds light upon their tragic stories and their exceptional music. Musicologists, composers, descendants, and musicians illuminate the composers’ fates from their perspective and establish both cultural references as well as the historical and political context.
Music, War and Revolution – Power and Music
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the musical world did not remain unaffected. Artists inevitably became involved, either as soldiers at the front or as composers of patriotic music or musical memorials to a lost world. The three-part documentary series investigates the (un)known, overt and hidden connections between music, war and revolution. Beginning with what led to this great human tragedy, each episode addresses different perspectives of the relationship between war and politics. The great seminal catastrophe of 1914 was not merely a historical upheaval for politics and society. Music had also lost ist political innocence. But can music really be political? Already in the 19th century, an increasing number of composers and musicians had started to adopt political agendas and to this day many musicians position themselves politically. Power and Music embarks on a search for the political aspects of music, combining historical examples with the present. The film itself thus deals with various standpoints of music’s political moments and starts a dialogue with renowned artists such as conductor Valery Gergiev, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero or the German-British cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, one of the last survivors of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.
Music, War and Revolution – Music in the Time of the Great War
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the musical world did not remain unaffected. Artists inevitably became involved, either as soldiers at the front or as composers of patriotic music or musical memorials to a lost world. The three-part documentary series investigates the (un)known, overt and hidden connections between music, war and revolution. The first part focuses on the enthusiasm for the war in the musical world: when musicians and composers became fervent patriots and soldiers. How did the composers and musicians such as Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Maurice Ravel and Béla Bartók handle these times of war? How did their experiences at the battlefront affect their composing? What do the compositions reveal of this era and its spirit, believes and artistic changes of this age? The documentary combines important historical locations in the lives of the composers and musicians: such as the original battlefront of Verdun with the Voie Sacrée and the old Vienna with the Wiener Musikverein.