Music behind barbed wire : a diary of summer 1940 / Hans Gál ; with a foreword by Sir Alan Peacock ; translated by Anthony Fox and Eva Fox-Gál.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gál, Hans, 1890-1987, author.

Contributor:

Fox, Anthony, 1943- translator.

Fox-Gál, Eva, translator.

Standardized Title:

Musik hinter Stacheldraht. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Gál, Hans, 1890-1987--Diaries.

Gál, Hans.

Gál, Hans, 1890-1987.

Composers--Austria--Diaries.

Composers.

Exiles' writings, Austrian.

Austria.

Genre:

Diaries.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

243 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm + 1 CD-ROM (4 3/4 in.)

Place of Publication:

London : Toccata Press, 2014.

Language Note:

Translated from the German.

Summary:

The Austrian composer Hans Gál (1890-1987) was one of many Jewish refugees who fled to Britain from Hitler's Third Reich only to find themselves interned in prison camps in Britain as 'enemy aliens' - the result of Churchill's panic decision to 'collar the lot'. Gál thus spent five months over the summer of 1940 in internment camps - first in Donaldson's Hospital in Edinburgh, then at Huyton, near Liverpool, and finally in the Central Promenade Camp on the Isle of Man. Many of Gál's fellow internees went on, like Gál himself, to become shaping forces in the intellectual life of Britain - but in captivity this colourful parade of characters had to put up with bureaucratic inertia and the indifference of their captors to their undeserved fate. The diary Gál kept during his captivity vividly describes the difficulties the internees had to overcome to live as normal a life as possible. Gál's contribution, of course, was music, and the CD with this book presents first recordings of the Huyton Suite he wrote for two violins and flute (the only instruments available to him), the satirical review What a Life! composed on the Isle of Man and the piano suite he drew from it. Introductory chapters by Gál's daughter and by Richard Dove present a biographical survey of Gál's life and career and an examination of British internment policy; the Foreword is by the distinguished economist Sir Alan Peacock, who studied composition with Gál. Together they throw light on one of the more shameful British responses to the threat of Nazi invasion.

Contents:

Contents of accompanying CD

Huyton suite for flute and two violins, op. 92

What a Life!: Music from the camp review ; Ballad of poor Jacob ; Piano suite rfom the camp review.

Participant:

Philippa Davies, flute, Paul Barritt, violin, Marcia Crayfors, violin, Norbert Neyn, tenor, Thomas Guthrie, baritone, Michael Freyhan, piano.

Notes:

Hardback. With dust jacket.

Contents of the CD: pages 197-214.

Originally published in 2003 as Musik hinter Stacheldraht : Tagebuchblätter aus dem Sommer 1940 by Lang.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contains:

Gál, Hans, 1890-1987. Works. Selections. English.

Davies, Philippa, instrumentalist.

Barritt, Paul, instrumentalist.

Crayford, Marcia, instrumentalist.

Meyn, Norbert, tenor.

Guthrie, Thomas, baritone.

Freyhan, Michael, instrumentalist.

ISBN:

0907689752

9780907689751

OCLC:

896614095

Publisher Number:

99961252971