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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
A surprising number of composers have been unfairly neglected because of the Nazi regime in Germany. Though the rest of the world did not consciously take cues from the Nazis, the status of Germany and Austria in the classical music world meant composers who were banned by the Nazis tended to fall into neglect elsewhere as well, purely through public attention being directed to other composers. Jewish composers were especially likely to disappear from concert programs, of course, but other groups suffered as well. Women had only begun to gain acceptance as composers at the end of the 19th century and some female composers were starting to see their pieces programmed regularly by the 1930s; the Nazi ideology, which demanded traditional gender roles, set them back half a century almost overnight in continental Europe.
That was the fate of the Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans (1895-1952), who was part of the "wrong" groups throughout her career. For most of her life, the highly conservative Dutch musical establishment tended to view local composers as inferior, which made it difficult for Dutch composers to get exposure. Ironically, it was the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands that gave many Dutch composers their big break: Dutch orchestras began to play more Dutch music as a means of protesting the occupation. The occupiers tolerated it -- with exceptions. Bosmans was one of them. Not only was she a woman, she was of partial Jewish descent and openly bisexual. Though she managed to escape arrest throughout the occupation, her music was banned from public performance in 1941 and she was banned from performing as a pianist in 1942. As a result, her music disappeared from concert halls just as Dutch music saw a great resurgence.
Although Bosmans did not play the cello herself, many pieces she composed before 1930 featured it as a solo instrument -- perhaps not coincidentally, her father had been principal cellist of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, but died of tuberculosis before she was a year old. Bosmans' Cello Sonata, composed in 1919, was one of these pieces. (It was completed a month before Elgar's Cello Concerto, with which it seems to share some musical vocabulary.) A passionate late-Romantic virtuoso piece, it features the cello in a "vocal" role in the first three movements. A stormy finale in 5/4 time circles back to conclude with an intensified version of the opening theme of the entire sonata.
Movements:
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Un poco allegretto (9:26)
III. Adagio (14:04)
IV. Allegro molto e con fuoco (17:41)
A surprising number of composers have been unfairly neglected because of the Nazi regime in Germany. Though the rest of the world did not consciously take cues from the Nazis, the status of Germany and Austria in the classical music world meant composers who were banned by the Nazis tended to fall into neglect elsewhere as well, purely through public attention being directed to other composers. Jewish composers were especially likely to disappear from concert programs, of course, but other groups suffered as well. Women had only begun to gain acceptance as composers at the end of the 19th century and some female composers were starting to see their pieces programmed regularly by the 1930s; the Nazi ideology, which demanded traditional gender roles, set them back half a century almost overnight in continental Europe.
That was the fate of the Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans (1895-1952), who was part of the "wrong" groups throughout her career. For most of her life, the highly conservative Dutch musical establishment tended to view local composers as inferior, which made it difficult for Dutch composers to get exposure. Ironically, it was the Nazi German occupation of the Netherlands that gave many Dutch composers their big break: Dutch orchestras began to play more Dutch music as a means of protesting the occupation. The occupiers tolerated it -- with exceptions. Bosmans was one of them. Not only was she a woman, she was of partial Jewish descent and openly bisexual. Though she managed to escape arrest throughout the occupation, her music was banned from public performance in 1941 and she was banned from performing as a pianist in 1942. As a result, her music disappeared from concert halls just as Dutch music saw a great resurgence.
Although Bosmans did not play the cello herself, many pieces she composed before 1930 featured it as a solo instrument -- perhaps not coincidentally, her father had been principal cellist of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, but died of tuberculosis before she was a year old. Bosmans' Cello Sonata, composed in 1919, was one of these pieces. (It was completed a month before Elgar's Cello Concerto, with which it seems to share some musical vocabulary.) A passionate late-Romantic virtuoso piece, it features the cello in a "vocal" role in the first three movements. A stormy finale in 5/4 time circles back to conclude with an intensified version of the opening theme of the entire sonata.
Movements:
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Un poco allegretto (9:26)
III. Adagio (14:04)
IV. Allegro molto e con fuoco (17:41)