World War
Suzy explores the use, abuse and manipulation of music in WWII. From swinging jazz to madcap ballets, both sides used music as a weapon in the battle for civilisation.
Suzy explores the use, abuse and manipulation of music in the Second World War - from swinging jazz to film soundtracks and from mushy ballads to madcap ballets. The war, she demonstrates, wasn't just a military fight but an ideological battle where both sides used music as a weapon to secure their vision for civilisation.
Suzy reveals how the forces' sweetheart Vera Lynn was taken off air by the 成人快手's 'Dance Music Policy Committee' for fear her sentimental songs undermined the British war effort. But in Nazi Germany, screen siren Zarah Leander had a hit with a song remarkably like Vera's We'll Meet Again. Meanwhile Nazi band Charlie and his Orchestra reworked Cole Porter classics by adding anti-British lyrics to weaken her morale. Though the Nazis banned jazz at home as 'degenerate', Suzy also explores Occupied Paris's incredible jazz scene. And the film revisits concerts given under extraordinary conditions - not least the performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung' (Twilight of the Gods), which in April 1945 brought the curtain down on the Third Reich.
Despite Hitler's taunt that Britain was 'Das Land ohne Musik' ('The Land without Music'), Suzy reveals the war work of two great British composers. William Walton's Spitfire Prelude became the archetype for a particularly British form of patriotic music. By contrast Michael Tippett was sent to prison for being a conscientious objector, but his anti-war oratorio A Child of Our Time was showcased at the Royal Albert Hall. The right of people to freely express themselves was, after all, what we were fighting for.
For some, music was a way of transcending desperate circumstances. Suzy examines Olivier Messiaen's haunting Quartet for the End of Time, written amid the desolation of a POW camp. But at Auschwitz, Suzy reveals how music was co-opted to serve the Nazis' evil purposes. Cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch explains how musical ability saved her from the gas chambers. Drafted into the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra, she had to play marches to drive prisoners to and from work and to give a private performance of Schumann's exquisitely innocent Traumerei to the infamous Dr Mengele.
The events of the 20th century show, Suzy concludes, that though we should continue to love and celebrate music, we should also be wary of its seductive power.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
You are at the last episode
See all episodes from Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein
Clip
-
The Spitfire Prelude - quintessentially British film music
Duration: 01:29
Music Played
-
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.5 In C-Minor Op.67
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 成人快手 Symphony 1939
Performer: Arturo Toscanini. -
William Walton
Prelude And Fugue - "the Spitfire"
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Charlie & His Orchestra
Let's Go Shelling - Slumming On Park Avenue
Orchestra: Charlie & His Orchestra. -
Robert Schumann
Tr盲umerei From Kinderszenen
Performer: Fibonacci Sequence. -
Felix Mendelssohn
A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Ross Parker
We'll Meet Again
Performer: Pub Crowd. Performer: Suzy Klein. -
Ross Parker
We'll Meet Again
Performer: Vera Lynn. -
Greco Casadesus
Nuremberg
Performer: Greco Casadesus. -
Walter Kent
(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover
Singer: Vera Lynn. -
Eric Coates
Calling All Workers
Performer: Band of the Royal Air Force College. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.5 In C-Minor Op.67
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
William Walton
Prelude And Fugue - "the Spitfire"
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Anton Bruckner
Adagio From Symphony No.7
Performer: Gregor Narholz. Orchestra: The Philharmonic Orchestra. -
Richard Wagner
Tannhauser, Prelude
-
Cole Porter
You're The Top
Orchestra: Charlie & His Orchestra. -
Irving Berlin
Slumming On Park Avenue
Performer: David Hermlin. -
Charlie & His Orchestra
Bom
Orchestra: Charlie & His Orchestra. -
Joseph Haydn
Deutshland Uber Alles
-
Hugo Distler
Konzert F眉r Cembalo Und Streichorchester, Op. 14: I. Allegro Vivace
Performer: Martin Haselb枚ck. Performer: Wiener Akademie. -
Michael Tippett
Child Of Our Time
Performer: 成人快手 National Chorus of Wales. Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Charles Gounod
Faust (1989 Digital Remaster), Act Iii: 'gloire Immortelle De Nos Aieux
Performer: David Bell. Performer: Choeurs de l'Op茅ra National de Paris. Orchestra: National Theater Opera Orchestra of Paris. Conductor: Georges Prtre. -
Georges Bizet
11. La Voila...l'amour Est Un Oiseau Rebelle From 'carmen' - Elena Obraztsova
Performer: Elena Obraztsova. -
Francis Poulenc
Deux Marches Et Un Interm猫de/Interm猫de Champ锚tre
Orchestra: Orchestre national de France. -
Francis Poulenc
IV.le Lion Amoreux: Passionement Anime
Performer: Jan Wagner. Orchestra: Odense Symfoniorkester. -
Francis Poulenc
Alsace Et Lorraine
Performer: Suzy Klein. -
Louis Prima
Sing Sing Sing
Performer: Andrej Hermlin. -
Django Reinhardt
Minor Swing
Performer: Brunard Connexion. -
Olivier Messiaen
M茅ditation I
Performer: Olivier Latry. -
Olivier Messiaen
Quartet For The End Of Time
Performer: Fibonacci Sequence. -
Erik Satie
Gnossienne For Piano No. 3 Lent
Performer: Reinbert de Leeuw. -
Helmut Witten
Helenenmarsch
Performer: Luftwaffen Musikkorps 1. -
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 8 In C Minor "path茅tique" Op. 13- Grave - Allegro Di Molto E Co
Performer: Daniel Barenboim. -
Robert Schumann
Tr盲umerei From Kinderszenen
Performer: Fibonacci Sequence. -
Nils Frahm
Wall
Performer: Nils Frahm. -
Richard Wagner
Die Gotterdammerung - Brunnhilde's Immolation And Finale
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales. -
Felix Mendelssohn
Overture To A Midsummer Night's Dream
Orchestra: 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales.
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Suzy Klein |
Orchestra | 成人快手 National Orchestra of Wales |
Choir | 成人快手 National Chorus of Wales |
Conductor | Otto Tausk |
Interviewed Guest | Lucy Noakes |
Interviewed Guest | Nigel Hess |
Interviewed Guest | Andrej Hermlin |
Interviewed Guest | Peter Collyer |
Interviewed Guest | Claude Abadie |
Interviewed Guest | Anita Lasker-Wallfisch |
Music Group | Brunard Connexion |
Music Group | Fibonacci Sequence |
Director | Nick Gillam-Smith |
Executive Producer | Archie Baron |
Executive Producer | Debbie Lee |
Production Company | Wingspan Productions |
Broadcasts
- Mon 16 Oct 2017 21:00
- Tue 17 Oct 2017 02:50
- Wed 25 Jul 2018 23:00
- Fri 30 Nov 2018 00:30
- Sat 14 Dec 2019 02:45
- Mon 4 May 2020 18:00Red Button One
- Tue 5 May 2020 17:00Red Button One
- Wed 6 May 2020 16:00Red Button One
- Thu 7 May 2020 18:00Red Button One
- Fri 8 May 2020 15:00Red Button One
- Fri 8 May 2020 20:00
- Sat 9 May 2020 02:30
Featured in...
Music Stories
Get the inside track on some of music's most influential songs, albums and personalities.