Traumerei and Russian History

December 22, 2006 7:25 AM

Help me understand the connection between "Traumerei" and Russia.

After watching Horowitz perform Traumerei in this YouTube clip I read in one of the comments that:

The reason so many of the older people in the audience are crying is because Traumerei was what was played across the Soviet Union when Germany surrendered in 1945. It clearly brought back memories.

I had never heard this before and was intrigued, so I decided to search and see what information I could turn up, which turned out to be not much.This page has a photo captioned:

Flag of Russia, at a procession on Red Square, with a military band playing Schumann's "Traumerei". (On September 10, 2006 -- is this a special day?)
Moscow, Russia.

Wikipedia does not reveal anything unusually interesting about September 10th as it relates to Russian history. This Usenet postings says that the piece is played at St. Peterburg's Peskaryev Memorial, and has been playing there non-stop since the memorial was created. But the poster does not say why! This Usenet post says that the piece is similarly played at another war memorial in Russia. Did this memorial get the idea from the other one, or are both referencing some other time the piece was played? Finally, This Usenet poster says:

It is often noted that the people of Volgograd/Stalingrad must not hold too
much of a grudge against Germany since they chose one of the great German
composers to play at this memorial to the WWII battle.

But that is more of a commentary on the piece and not an explanation.Does anyone know who first chose this piece to be played in Russia in reference to a war in Germany, whether it was WWI or WWII, and basically just help me understand the significance to Russian citizens today?

posted by ducksauce to society & culture (7 comments total)

"Does anyone know who first chose this piece to be played in Russia in reference to a war in Germany, whether it was WWI or WWII"

I guess it was WWII: a tsarist (i.e. WWI) choice of music would have been unlikely to survive in the USSR; and if we are talking about 1918 (post-1917 revolution), then it seems unlikely that the beleaguered bolshevik government would have had the time to establish a tradition such as this; the more so as WWI wasn't regarded by the bolsheviks as a popular-patriotic event in the same way as WWII.

During Stalin's time an organisation called I believe the Committee for Art Affairs or similar made a lot of these choices; even if it didn't, it is likely that some other arm of the Soviet bureaucracy did. In other words, it might be difficult to pin the choice on any individual. Having said that, a thorough history of Soviet music, if such exists, might help. I will in any case ask a Moscow musicologist.
posted by londongeezer at 10:57 AM on December 22, 2006

I doubt you're going to get an answer to the specific question "who decided to play the music in 1945"—it could have been some forgotten functionary at Radio Moscow. But it's certainly associated with the anniversary; this page on this year's celebrations, for instance, says:

В 18.55 по московскому времени будет объявлена минута молчания в память о жертвах войны, транслировать ее будут все телекомпании России. Под звуки музыки Шумана «Грёзы» будут произнесены слова, обращенные ко всему человечеству и призывающие на века сохранить память о тех, кто отдал свою жизнь в борьбе с фашизмом.

At 6:55 Moscow time there will be a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the war, broadcast by all the stations of Russia. Underneath the sounds of Schumann's "Träumerei" [translated as Грёзы 'dreams' in Russian] words will be addressed to all mankind calling for the memory to be kept forever of those who gave their lives in the struggle with fascism.

I have to say, it didn't strike me that "so many of the older people in the audience" were crying—Russians tend to react emotionally to art and it was, after all, Horowitz. But if there were unusually large numbers of weeping codgers, that would be why, I guess.
posted by languagehat at 12:09 PM on December 22, 2006

ducksauce, I'm no Russian history scholar, but I'm one of the many classical fans who have the CD of Horowitz's 1986 Moscow concert. I can't shed any light on a connection between Schumann's "Traumerei" and the German surrender -- nothing about that is mentioned in the liner notes, which were written by the late Charles Kuralt of CBS. But he does make it quite clear that the concert was an extremely momentous and emotional .event, for different reasons.

According to the notes, Horowitz left his native Russia in 1925 (he was already a famous pianist by then..."Even the border guards knew him"), received his U.S. citizenship in 1942, and never went back to his homeland until 1986, at 82 years old. He had had a "desire to 'see Russia once more before I die'" and had wondered if he "might not return as 'an ambassador of peace.'" There were less than 400 seats offered to the public, compared to 1,400 reserved for the Soviet VIP. On the day of the recital, people stood outside the concert hall in the rain even though they couldn't hear anything. Hundreds of students broke through security to watch the concert from the balcony, and guards couldn't manage to remove them.

Horowitz didn't disappoint. Some extracts from Kuralt: "By the time he reached the music of the Russian composers Rachmaninov and Scriabin, many in the audience were weeping." (These composers preceded Schumann in the program.) "'It is not human. It can only come from heaven,' said a concertgoer at an intermission. 'He is the only pianist who can play colors,' said another." [...] "The headline on page one of the New York Times next day summed up the reaction: 'FOR HOROWITZ IN MOSCOW, BRAVOS AND TEARS.'" I mean, wow, page one. (Incidentally, perhaps the NYT article from April 21, 1986 might help?)

While there is no mention of "Traumerei's" historical significance regarding the surrender in 1945, Horowitz's presence and performance were certainly significant. Kuralt also says, "This concert occurred at a time of international tension. The United States Air Force had bombed Libya, provoking an angry outcry from the Soviet Union, and the world's television screens had been full of warlike images for a week. Now, suddenly, on those same screens, appeared the tender image of a great American pianist playing Schumann's 'Traumerei' (Dreaming), one of the Scenes from Childhood, for a Russian audience. The emotion of Horowitz's choice of encores was lost on nobody in the hall."

He then goes on to quote Andy Rooney of all people, who wrote a column about how moved he was by just watching the concert on television. I actually found an edited excerpt (as well as some of what I already quoted) on this livejournal. You have to scroll down past the videos...it's just before the comment line. It's the only part in English.

So unfortunately, I can't confirm or deny or clarify the historical connection you asked for. But based on what I've read and heard, it's altogether possible that the political climate, coupled with the landmark of Horowitz's return and his by-then legendary musical talent, were the primary factors for such emotional reaction -- and not just among the elder people in the Moscow audience, but universally. (Also according to Kuralt, Horowitz was reunited with his 70-year-old niece, whom he'd last seen when she was 9. Upon learning about the recital, she wrote him a letter saying that her dream of seeing him perform live would finally come true...wild conjecture, but maybe she was a prominent audience member on camera?...or not.) "Traumerei" in particular was was one of Horowitz's favorite pieces to play as an encore, and from these notes by his record producer, Horowitz makes no mention of any historical meaning in a reference to the piece. "'It may look simple on the page," [Horowitz] said about Träumerei, 'but it is a masterpiece. The idea that slow, lyrical music is easy to play is a common misconception.'"

My first thought when reading your question (along similar lines as the Usenet post you quoted) was to wonder why the Soviets would play German music just after the Germans surrendered. Perhaps the later, concrete choices in playing Schumann were purely for musical, and not historical, reasons. I don't know if you came across this Usenet thread -- someone asked why "Traumerei" was played 24/7 at that war memorial (people guessed, basically, that it's because of the emotional power of the music itself -- depending on when the music was added, Horowitz's own 1986 performance may well have been an influence in selection); and although it's not Sept. 10th, here's a reference in a news brief about honoring Russian WW2 soldiers in Moscow on V-E Day 2005: "All television channels will livecast an appeal to the world to ever hold sacred the memory of all who laid down their life to fight nazism. A Schumann tune will accompany the address." Schumann strikes again, but the title of his "tune" isn't identified (wanna bet it's "Traumerei"?). (On preview, languagehat refers to V-E Day 2006 observations, which specifically identifies the song!)

But I'm just a music fan who happens to have the liner notes to the CD. Maybe the DVD notes would help (I'm only half-kidding). In any case, I hope someone versed in that specific Russian history/context will be able to address your question more definitively.
posted by macguffin at 12:19 PM on December 22, 2006

wonder why the Soviets would play German music

The Russians have always loved German music, and it's been a problem during their wars with Germany. From Patriotic Culture in Russia During World War I by Hubertus F. Jahn, p. 145:

Although German operas had enjoyed great popularity with Russian audiences before 1914, they were now conspicuous by their absence.... More important was the fate of Richard Wagner's operas, which had been fixtures at all Russian opera houses since the early 1890s and which were performed even by itinerant troupes in the provinces. Wagner strongly influenced large segments of the Russian artistic intelligentsia, including contributors to Mir iskusstva, Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and such symbolist writers as Aleksandr Blok and Viacheslav Ivanov... Wagnermania reached its peak in the 1913-14 opera season with eight new productions, including the Russian premiere of Parsifal. The war temporarily cooled Russians' enthusiasm for Wagner....

I would guess that Schumann, unlike Wagner, was not seen as any sort of representative of German supremacy but simply as a great composer, representative of the kind of civilization the Nazis had tried to wipe out and the Russians saw themselves as upholding. But I'd love to hear from someone with specific knowledge about this.
posted by languagehat at 1:17 PM on December 22, 2006

Well, this is what my musicologist friend in Moscow writes:

"What an interesting question... This is an old tradition, we've been so used to it that it's rather difficult now to find out the initiator's name. According to Galina Vishnevskaya, the piece was sung(!) at Stalin's funeral. No doubt, it was heard on similar occasions earlier, too. The question has to be investigated..."
posted by londongeezer at 2:15 PM on December 22, 2006

I visited the former Soviet Union in 1978, including the enormous war cemetery in Leningrad, as it was then called. Traumerei was played on speakers throughout the cemetery, so this custom definitely predated Horowitz's return. I also remember a bus-load or two of weeping German visitors on that occasion.

Incidentally we were also struck by the prominence of war memorials in every town visited, it seemed usually attended by a bridal party which would customarily visit the local memorial (a tomb of the unknown soldier) and lay the bridal bouquet on the tomb.
posted by Coaticass at 2:15 PM on December 22, 2006

Thank you for these fantastic answers. Though I do not have a definitive answer to why this piece is played so often as a memorial it seems at least very likely that it was selected following World War II, possibly because it was itself of German origin, and it may be played on so many separate but related occasions just because it fits so perfectly.

It is not hard to believe that those in the audience who were in or on the verge of tears reacted that way simply because the piece is so beautiful and Horowitz's rendition was so powerful, but it does not seem unlikely that Traümerei would be meaningful to these people in other ways as well based on the other times it has been chosen as a memorial.

I am looking forward to tracking down the New York Times article macguffin referenced above (it is good to know people with access to LexisNexis), hopefully that will shed more light on the matter, but the answers above have provided so much background on how Traümerei and Russia have been linked in the past that I must admit I am quite satisfied with all of the new things I've learned in this thread. Again, thank you everyone!
posted by ducksauce at 7:17 AM on December 23, 2006