The music collages below and the music drawings, installation sculptures, and most of the unique artists’ books documented on other pages of this site explore various facets of life in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.
Wintereise 1996
Collection of the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea Library, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Collage work incorporating sheet music related to countries occupied by Nazi forces during WW II. The dragonflies that decorate some of the pages were material recycled from the creation of an artist book in which I embedded a dragonfly found near the Kebbel-Villa, Schwandorf, Germany.
Einzelgänger 1996. 5 1/16″x 3 1/2″ x 3/4″ / 37 cm x 25 cm x 3 cm Collection of the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea Library, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Politische Freiheit / Innerer Freiheit 1996
Three-panel music collage on pages of the score of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried. Each panel is approx. 23.5 cm x 31 cm. The images are of Hitler’s “Totaler Krieg” rally and a destroyed German city. Texts are from a Nazi propaganda leaflet, a small bilingual phrase book printed in Vichy France titled Méthode très facile pour savoir vite et bien l’allemand, and Dale Carnegie’s bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Wir schweigen nicht 1996
Collection Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Manuscripts and Rare Books Archive , Munich, Germany.
Two-panel music collage about the Weisse Rose anti-Hitler resistance group active in Munich in the early 1940s. Various members of the group were arrested in February 1943. Following a hasty show-trial that month, brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl and companion Cristoph Probst were executed for having distributed anti-nazi leaflets in the entry hall of the University of Munich. Collection Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Manuscripts and Rare Books Archive , Munich, Germany.
I Just Had to Come Back 1996
Two-panel music collage on pages of sheet music for the song “I Just Had to Come Back” published by Broadcast Music in 1941. Images: found photograph of a European family seated in a garden and a photographic portrait of Horst Wessel, a young Nazi martyr. Text: German and French words for “return”; an explanation in English of the German word Schadenfreud; and a vertical list of years from a vintage agenda.
Here’s my Heart 1996
Two-panel music collage on sheet music for the song “Here’s my Heart” published by Broadcast Music in 1940. Images and text: Label for a geography book or notebook in French; map of part of the French-German border; chart in German explaining WW I reparations; fragments of the envelope of a letter sent to an editor by the name of Alfred Linder bearing a stamp that reads “Return to sender”; label for a history book or notebook in French; small period photograph of the Moulin Rouge in Paris; excerpts of a German-French phrasebook explaining how to say “I would like to send a souvenir of Paris to my mother in both languages; a text found in a wartime French magazine stating that signage in city halls and shops in cities to which Alsatians have fled as refugees is being provided “in the Alsatian dialect” although there is no such thing as an Alsatian dialect of French and the language these people spoke was German; a scrap of printed paper referring to the Reischsverband Der Deutsche Presse, a professional association for German journalists that functioned from 1910 to 1945; a fragment of a letter written by a French worker sent to Germany through the Vichy Service du Travail Obligatoire in which the person laments “You know that I am spending [what should be] the best years of my life here as a slave.”
Am Himmel zieh’n die Wolken in die Ferne 1996
Two-panel music collage on sheet music for “Am Himmel zieh’n die Wolken in die Ferne” (The clouds drift into the distance in the sky) published by Wiener Boheme-Verlag, Berlin in 1944. Text fragments: a label for a French history notebook; a snippet of text in Spanish reading “civilization, culture, relgion”; a small map illustrating the front near Berlin and Leipzig; excerpts from a traveler’s phrasebook in English “He is a friend of mine,” “I look upon him as a friend,” “I know him by sight,” “I know him by name,” and “I wish you a pleasant voyage”; a line in German in a traveler’s phrasebook that reads “Please, here is my card”; two fragments from a letter written by a Frenchman sent to Germany through the Vichy Service du Travail Obligatoire which read “You know that we are still prisoners” and “in the trains”; a text in French reading “in the garden,” and another in German inviting someone to take a walk; text reading “World War II” in German; the word “visit” in Spanish; an excerpt from a Nazi propaganda booklet; a text reading “Be a good soldier”; a small pattern for cross-stitch needlework; texts from a traveler’s phrasebook “Take care of yourself!” , “will you take a walk with me?”, and the reply “With all my heart for I like very much walking”; scraps from an agenda and a calendar.
Erinnnerung 1996
Five-panel music collage on sheet music for various pieces with annotations in German and Russian. Collage elements: Publication information in Russian dated 1940; photographic reproduction of a portrait of opera singer Leda Barclay; pattern for cross-stitch needlework; small inset of Jewish prayers for the dead; postcard sent to a Frenchman working in Germany through the Vichy Service du Travail Obligatoire that reads: “My dear Jean, everyone in your household is well, I have good news about your father. Your wife is at the home of M. Martin in Auroux (Lozère). Work well, keep your spirits up, and everything will work out for the best. With my warmest regards and best wishes, (signature on card is illegible)
La Nuit de Mai 1996
University of Iowa Library Special Collections, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Ten-panel music collage on sheet music for the overture of Rimsky Korsakov’s opera La Nuit de Mai published by M.P. Belaïeff, Leipzig. Each panel is approximately 27 cm x 34 cm. Strips of maps and text are placed within the musical staves. The texts express various levels of fear, uncertainty, gratitude, hope, despair, panic, and resignation (“It is mere invention. It is impossible,” “Not at all, I assure you… ” “What will you have me do? What ought I do? What must I do?…” “I have not seen our friend since last spring,” Y”ou can make more friends…” “You are too obliging. I am afraid that I abuse your friendship… ” “Wann kommen wir zu Grenzstation?… ” “Tu veux me renoncer? Alors…” )
Melodie meiner Träum 1996
Two-panel music collage bearing references to the “Landgraben Lager” in Weisbaden, Germany. The Landgraben Lager was a Nazi prisoner of war camp originally intended to house captured Soviet soldiers to which soldiers of a wide variety of nationalities were later transferred. It was liberated by allied forces in March 1945.
Wir machen Musik 1996
Three-panel music collage on pages of sheet music for “Wann wirst Du wieder bei mir sein?” and “Ich hab’ Dich und Du hast mich,”songs featured in Wir machen Musik, a 1942 German musical comedy film. Sandwiched between small black and white prints illustrating the stories of Judith and Esther are proclamations of restrictions applicable to Jews under the Third Reich (Jews are prohibited from rowing in the river, practicing any kind of sport in public, enjoying their own gardens or staying at a friend’s house after 8 pm… Jews cannot attend theater performances or enter movie theaters or other leisure facilities, Jews cannot use public swimming pools); the statement in German “But what should the Jews do? This question is more difficult to answer. The subject, in its subtle inexhaustibility, defies any effort to address it.”; the June 20, 1942 entry in Ann Frank’s diary; a stamp of a museum in Dresden bearing a Nazi eagle and swastika motif; a photograph of two girls with braided hair; and other small bits of printed material.
