In a previous post on the opera Napoleon by Edmund von Borck, I made the argument that this opera works as a piece of wartime propaganda. The only piece of the opera that doesn’t fulfill the propaganda use is the style of the music and the use the saxophone in the orchestration. Wasn’t the saxophone banned in Germany? The answer is far more complicated. In order to see how the saxophone ended up in this opera, first we have to look at the changing image of the saxophone during the Third Reich.
The arrival of jazz in Germany transformed the music scene in the Weimar Republic. Just a look in this database shows dozens of works written for the saxophone during this period in Germany alone. In 1928, the Hoch’sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt opened a jazz class, which received strong pushback from Fritz Stege at the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, who responded in racist language at the notion of jazz being taught in a German conservatory.[1] The Neue Zeitschrift took a stand against the instrument, ridiculing the saxophone “Somehow in its sound a melancholic impotent desire is showing through. The saxophone sounds, or more precisely whines and whimpers, of a lost paradise.”[2] This hatred of jazz and what it represented, became a focal point in the ideology implemented in the early days of the Third Reich. In 1933, the Nazi party called for a ban on the saxophone.[3] This part of the history on the instrument is well known, but what actually happened is the Nazi’s attempt to change the image and distort the history of the saxophone. It was never banned, in fact the saxophone thrived under the Third Reich. And it had one of Germany’s finest saxophonists it’s disposal. Meet Ingrid Larssen, aka Hilde Bumcke.
Hilde Bumcke learned to play the saxophone from her father, Gustav Bumcke, the famous German saxophone teacher at the Stern’sches Konservatorium in Berlin. Bumcke is responsible for bringing the saxophone to Germany after visiting Adolphe Sax’s son in 1902.[4] In 1933, Hilde followed a German tradition among women in the arts and entertainment to change their name to a more Nordic sounding name, she chose Ingrid Larssen.[5] Larssen toured Germany and the Netherlands playing her dad’s compositions and other works from 1933 and 1936. In the press, she was praised with positive attributes that highlighted her femininity, age and playing ability as “the juvenile female saxophone virtuoso,” “Germany’s best female saxophonist,” or “the girl with the saxophone.”[6] In Germany, she received praise in Goebbel’s propaganda journal, the Völkische Beobachter, who said of Larssen “If the saxophone is treated as masterly as Ingrid Larssen does, the arbitrary prejudices will soon disappear.”[7] Goebbel’s own journal is essentially using Larssen and her image as a white women to change the appearance of the saxophone as a feminine instrument, far removed from the African American jazz bands that were popular at the time.
Now is a good time to listen to Larssen. There are several recordings of hers on YouTube. This first example is a great show of sweet and lyrical side of her playing.
This next video shows how she adopted jazz techniques that were popularized in the 1920s into her playing, starting with a laugh.
Larssen was soon featured on the radio.[8] The press for the radio shows also doubled as propaganda, as journalists attempted to rewrite the history of the saxophone. In a magazine feature titled, “Encounter with Ingrid Larssen; Saxophone no Jazz instrument,” introduced her like this;
“Talking with the 22 year-old bright and sporty Berlin girl, at first we dwelled upon the history of the saxophone. It is mostly unknown that this instrument has its home in Germany. The German Adolf Sax constructed it in the middle of the last century. Then he moved to Belgium and from that time onwards the Belgians claim the invention for themselves, like many other German inventions. The saxophone has nothing to do with the home of jazz music. Already in the last century composers of serious music used the saxophone. Today a whole slew of German musicians create music for the saxophone. And Ingrid Larssen is the most important intermediary of this music. She is the protagonist of making the saxophone socially acceptable.”[9]
Larssen essentially became a useful tool of propaganda, as this magazine feature illustrates. By attempting to reclaim “Adolf” Sax as German, the saxophone becomes a German instrument. That the use of the saxophone in jazz band is a distortion of its German heritage. Larssen is essentially returning the saxophone to it’s rightful place in music. This lie is so insidious, by using Larssen, they are reminding the public that the saxophone was initially supported by women players. That is true. But by Germanizing Adolphe Sax—which isn’t the first time they used this spelling—it demonstrates how Nazi ideology is not just a mere attempt at banning what they don’t like, but actually rewriting history to say it was ours this whole time.[10] This is far more dangerous.
Her image as a blond white woman was also a useful propaganda tool. She became a featured musician on the German public television station, “Paul Nipkow” in 1935. The Nazi’s used the television as a new source of propaganda, stating “In this hour the broadcast is invoked in order to fulfill its biggest and holiest mission, to implant the image of the Führer inextinguishably into all German hearts.”[11] Her image was essentially the most useful tool for this propaganda push. The Nazi’s were trying to install the image of a saxophonist as that of a white woman, in contrast to that of a black man. That image of a black saxophonist is seared into popular culture in the 1920s and 30s, in Germany she was useful in changing that image.
The biography of Ingrid Larssen demonstrates the Nazi’s were supporters of the saxophone, and attempted to reclaim the saxophone as a German instrument. So it is no surprise that the saxophone shows up in many German works in the 1930s and 1940s, including opera. Back to Edmund von Borck’s opera, Napoleon, examining the music, he is writing in an atonal style, similar to his earlier works in the 1930s. But the use of the saxophone is not only extensive, but it praised by Fritz Stege, saying “the soulfulness of individual instruments that obligatory to various arias (saxophone, horn) the richness of the themes in a polyphony of execution reminiscent of activity with absolute economy of tonal means in clear, austere, transparent drawing – you would have to go through the opera measure by measure in order to be able to do justice to all the details.”[12] This is the same Fritz Stege from above, who in the 1920s insulted the saxophone and jazz and was one of the leading Nazi music critics. By 1942, the transformation of the saxophone from the African American jazz bands of the 1920s to the sophisticated sounds of the opera is complete.
The success of Napoleon was short lived. During a rehearsal at Wuppertal in 1944, the theater was hit in a bombing raid, destroying the score. The parts and piano reduction are now in the hands of publisher Universal Editions, but they have no interest reviving the opera.[13] Now, you may be thinking, why wouldn’t Universal Edition want to reconstruct this opera? Well the obvious answer is Edmund von Borck died at the frontlines in Italy, wearing a Nazi uniform. He may not have been committed to the ideology, but he died supporting its cause. This is where the thorny issues of ideology and music intersect. You don’t have to look very far to find countless composers, musicians, conductors etc. who were avid supporters of the Nazi regime. The ones lucky enough to live could denounce the regime once it fell, separating themselves from the politics and their careers survived. By dying, Borck did not get a chance to disavow this ideology.
Should there be effort into reviving these lost works? I think a good answer to this question is opera companies are starting to look at the operas banned by the Nazi Regime, bringing them back to life. One example of this is from the National Theater in Prague and other opera houses in Europe. The composers who are featured in these series were persecuted by the Nazi Regime. Only now are their works getting attention. For further reading on how music and politics intersect in the 20th century, I recommend the book The War on Music by John Mauceri. I first came across his name when I found his recordings for the Entartete Musik series, which highlights the works banned by Nazis. He makes some good cases on how politics have shaped music programming, which composers are ignored and which composers should be ignored. If you ever program music, it’s good to think about who you want to feature and why.
For more information on the complicated legacy of Ingrid Larssen, please read Heike Fricke article on her in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, in the footnote below. It gives a great overview on music during the Third Reich.
[1] Fritz Stege, Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. 95, issue 1, January 1928.
[2] Wolfgang Beyer and Monica Ladurner, Im Swing gegen den Gleichschritt. Die Jugend, der Jazz und die Nazis. Residenz-Verlag, St. Pölten-Salzburg, 2011, pg. 61.
[3]Stephen Cottrell, The Saxophone, Yale University Press (2012), pg. 321
[4] Heike Fricke, “Ingrid Larssen: A female saxophonist in the nazi era.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 40 (2014) 190-218. Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/ingrid-larssen-female-saxophonist-nazi-era/docview/1694487533/se-2. pg. 195.
[5]ibid. 199
[6] ibid. 205
[7] ibid. 205
[8] ibid. 210
[9] ibid. 208
[10] In September, 1933, the government issued a press release title “Rescuing the Honor of the Saxophone” which states “The Reichs Minister for Education and Propaganda answered that the saxophone bears no responsibility for Negro music. It is an invention of Adolf Sax, born November 6, 1814, and is mainly used in military music.” Note the spelling of Adolphe. Stephen Cottrell, The Saxophone, Yale University Press (2012), pg. 324
[11] Heike Fricke, “Ingrid Larssen: A female saxophonist in the nazi era.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 40 (2014) 190-218. Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/ingrid-larssen-female-saxophonist-nazi-era/docview/1694487533/se-2. pg 211
[12] “die beseelung einzelner instrumente, die obligat zu verschiedenen arien treten (saxophon, horn) der Reichtum der Themen in einer an Reger mahnenden Polyphonie der Durchfuehrung bei absoluter Sparsamkeit der klanglichen Mittel in klarer, herber, durchsichtiger Zeichnung–man muesste takt fuer takt die Oper durchgehen, um allen einzelheiten gerecht werden zu koennen.” Fritz Stege, “Napoleon” Zeitschrift für Musik, November 1942, pg. 510.
[13] Wildy L. Zumwalt, (2003). Edmund von borck: A study of his life and music with an emphasis on his works for the saxophone (Order No. 3109540). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305325204). Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/edmund-von-borck-study-his-life-music-with/docview/305325204/se-2 pg. 54
the Operatic Saxophone 