Hans Gál
Music Behind Barbed Wire: A Diary of Summer 1940
With a Forward by Sir Alan Peacock
Translated by Eva Fox-Gál and Anthony Fox
English edition by Martin Anderson - 190 pages (illustrée)
Toccata Press
October 2014
ISBN : 978-0-90768-975-1
The Austrian composer Hans Gál (1890-1987) was one of many Jewish refugees
who fled to Britain from Hitler's Third Reich only to find themselves interned
in prison camps in Britain as 'enemy aliens' - the result of Churchill's panic
decision to 'collar the lot'. Gál thus spent five months over the summer of 1940
in internment camps - first in Donaldson's Hospital in Edinburgh, then at Huyton,
near Liverpool, and finally in the Central Promenade Camp on the Isle of Man.
Many of Gál's fellow internees went on, like Gál himself, to become shaping
forces in the intellectual life of Britain - but in captivity this colourful
parade of characters had to put up with bureaucratic inertia and the
indifference of their captors to their undeserved fate. The diary Gál kept
during his captivity vividly describes the difficulties the internees had to
overcome to live as normal a life as possible. Gál's contribution, of course,
was music, and the CD with this book presents first recordings of the Huyton
Suite he wrote for two violins and flute (the only instruments available to him),
the satirical review What a Life! composed on the Isle of Man and the piano
suite he drew from it. Introductory chapters by Gál's daughter and by Richard
Dove present a biographical survey of Gál's life and career and an examination
of British internment policy; the Foreword is by the distinguished economist Sir
Alan Peacock, who studied composition with Gál. Together they throw light on one
of the more shameful British responses to the threat of Nazi invasion.
Table of contents :
- Foreword by Sir Alan Peacock
- Prelude
- Eva Fox-Gál : ‘Hans Gál: A Biographical Introduction’
- Eva Fox-Gál : Acknoledgements
- Richard Dove : ‘”Most Regrettable and Deplorable Things have Happened”: Britain’s Internment of Enemy Aliens in 1940’
- Hans Gál : Music behind Barbed Wire
- Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh
- Huyton, near Liverpool
- Central Promennade Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man
- Postlude
- Eva Fox-Gál: ‘Gál in Britain’
- Appendices
- Personalia
- Members of the Gál Family
- Others
- CD of Gál's Works composed in internment (*)
- Martin Anderson : Hans Gál in Conversation
- A memoir of Hans Gál
- The Hans Gál Society
- The Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index of Gál’s Works
- General Index
- List of Illustrations
Music behind Barbed Wire is Hans Gál’s diary of the five months he spent
in summer 1940 as a prisoner of His Majesty’s Government after Churchill decided
(not his finest hour!) to solve the problem of ‘enemy aliens’ – many of them
Jews who had fled to Britain from Hitlerism – with the order ‘Collar the lot!’
Gál chronicles the stultifying bureaucracy of his captors and the measures the
prisoners took to keep themselves occupied – in his case, of course,
composition: of the Huyton Suite for two violins and flute, because they
were the only instruments in Huyton Camp, near Liverpool, and the revue Wat a
Life!, performed on the Isle of Man – both words documented on the CD
accompanying the book.
(*)
Contents of the CD
TT 69:51
Huyton Suite for flute and two violins, Op.92 (1940) 18:26
- Alla Marcia 2:29
- Capriccio 5:32
- Canzonetta con variazioni 6:11
- Fanfaronata 4:14
What a life! : Music from the Camp Revue (1940) 19:53
Reconstructed from the manuscript by Michael Freyhan
- Einzugsmarsch (Entrance March) 3:15
- Barbed Wire Song 2:07
- Frauen Song (Women's Song) 1:14
- Die Ballade vom deutschen Refugee (The Ballad of the German Refugee)
2:12
- Entr'Acte 1:16
- Keep Fit 1:23
- Quodlibet 1:19
- Besen Song (Broom Song) 0:53
- Der Song vom Doppelbett (The Song of the Double Bed) 1:26
- Serenade 2:15
- Finale 2:33
Norbert Meyn, tenor
Thomas Guthrie, baritone
Katalin Kertész and Charlotte Edwards, violins
Andrew Byrt, viola
Peter Fryhan, cello
Raffaello Orlandon, clarinet
Edward Beckett, flute
Michael Freyhan, piano (1920s Blüthner)
Die Ballade vom armen Jakob (The Ballad of poor Jakob) 17:41
Thomas Guthrie, speaker
Michael Freyhan, piano (Hans Gál's 1911 Blüthner)
What a life! : Piano Suite from the Camp Revue (1940) : 13:05
- Prelude ('Poor Jacob') - Allegro impetuoso e pesante 2:38
- Intermezzo (Jacob' end') - Moderato, misurata 2:16
- Ballade ('The barbed-Wire Harp') - Andante sostenuto 3:49
- Jolly March ('The Pageant') - Allegro gocoso 4:22
Michael Freyhan, piano
(1920s Blüthner)