terms of harmonics, Hartmann’s music is tonal, though strongly chromatic, which deprives the listener of a secure sense of anchoring in a specific key. The composer did not shy away from strongly dissonant sounds, sometimes close to clusters. Sound beauty in purely aesthetic terms was not his priority. He created music in the service of truth, uncompromising and authentic.

The framework of Hartmann’s ‘inner emigration’ is symbolically marked by two string quartets. String Quartet No. 1 was created in 1933 just after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Third Reich, whereas String Quartet No. 2 was composed a moment after the end of World War II, in 1945. Other important works written during this time include the tone poem Miserae, the opera Simplicius Simplicissimus, Concerto funèbre for violin and chamber orchestra and Sinfonia tragica. The work of this period is extremely allusive and full of content hidden, as it were, between the verses. The composer’s musical language, like an enigmatic message, requires deciphering to understand the hidden meaning. Hartmann weaves in quotes from Jewish melodies, a Hussite hymn, a Russian revolutionary song or from Chinese liberation songs, but these are never literal quotes, but melodies passed through the filtre of an individual musical concept. Jazz elements in the rhythmic layer, metric irregularities or percussive treatment of instruments are an allusion to all manifestations of ‘degeneration’ in music banned by the Nazi regime. Ideological engagement can also be seen in the selection of texts in vocal-instrumental works, including those written by Karl Marx or Johannes Becher in a cappella chorales or the libretto of Simplicius Simplicissimus based on a 17th-century novel by Grimmelshausen.

 

 

Aleksandra Czajor