Re: GG: Music and Morality

[Richard Vallis <rvpiano@spec.net>]

Has anyone here read Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" (Vintage Books,
soft cover) ?  Might shed some light on  Nazism  (and von Karajan). This book's
premise, according to the author, has been accepted in Germany by many.

John P. Hill wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Michael D. Benedetti wrote:
>
> > GG's judgements often did not seem very deep; often they seemed to be the
> > results of someone who was nuts. GG was a hypocrite about so many things
> > that it seems ridiculous to expect consistency from him.
>
> I think "nuts" might be taking it a bit far.  If one looks at GG's habits
> that were viewed as "eccentric", many of them had a basis in very
> rational thought.  The hand-soaking and wearing of cut-out mittens, for
> example, make complete sense for a pianist with circulation/blood pressure
> problems whose hands were his livelihood.  We now know that a lower
> seating position at the keyboard and the soaking of hands can help to
> prevent tendonitis and other hand/joint/blood flow-related problems that
> have plagued many pianists.
>
> On the other hand (and we've hit on this before), Gould's public
> pronouncements and "sermonizing" were not infrequently at odds with
> his actual day-to-day behavior.  For example, he professed ideological
> agreement with various aspects of socialism, but demonstrated considerable
> skill at playing the stock market and was anything but a socialist in
> his own handling of money and other issues related to his career.
>
> On "puritanical" matters, there are other notable "disconnects".
> According to Kazdin, GG made a *big* deal over Kazdin's wife having a
> Cosmopitan magazine in their home (during the nude Burt Reynolds period?)
> and really wanted them to know how much he disapproved of that.  Yet, this
> disapproval of soft-core porn (and someone *else's* at that) didn't
> apparently stop him from having a very close personal (sexual?)
> relationship with the wife of a well-known conductor/composer.  What's up
> with that?  Doesn't sound too "puritanical" to me.
>
> > I find your argument that "we would not have stood up to the Nazis, therefore
> > we cannot judge Karajan" to be fatuitous.  Karajan did not flee the Reich;
> > this says something about him. We are all responsible for our actions, even
> > though we don't always want to be.
>
> I agree.  Lots of famous composers and musicians *did* leave (Hindemith,
> et. al.).  And while some Germans undoubtedly were misled or were ignorant
> of the horrors of what went on, undoubtedly many were not.  Hatred
> and bigotry on that scale does not exist in a vacuum and folks who witness
> it taking place without taking a stand against it *do* bear a measure of
> responsibility, in my mind.  That doesn't mean that their later
> accomplishments are without worth, but it does make the question
> originally posed about GG's thoughts/feelings on HvK quite relevent and
> interesting;  all the more so by virtue of the possible derivation of
> GOULD from the Jewish "GOLD" that has been speculated upon here and
> elsewhere.
>
> jh