Effects of World War II on Organs and Organ Music
In addition to bombings, genocides, and horrific loss of human life and destruction, WWII was devastating for the pipe organ in Europe. Countless priceless historical organs were destroyed, manuscripts were taken away for safe-keeping and never found after the war, organists and musicologists were drafted into the war and killed or held in concentration camps. The effects of World War II continue to be felt in modern-day musicology of early organ music, as many important manuscripts continue to be lost, forcing musicologists to rely on earlier musicological editions.
This article is an incomplete overview of different ways that World War II impacted the organ, its music, and its performers and studiers. Please refer to each article for references for each of these facts (except for bullet points which to not link to any articles).
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Germany
- The two organs in Marienkirche, Lübeck, which both had major historical value, were destroyed in bombings on Palm Sunday, 1942.
- The musicologist Fritz Dietrich was drafted into the war in 1944 and went missing while enlisted.
- Rudolph van Beckerath was drafted into the war and later captured by the Americans, and held as a POW from 1945-1946.
- Hugo Distler committed suicide on All Saints Day, 1942, possibly due to depression of living in Nazi Germany and fear of being conscripted.
- Examples of important manuscripts that went missing include the only manuscript containing the Toccata in F Major (BuxWV 157) by Buxtehude. Another manuscript containing the setting of Te Deum by Buxtehude is valuable because it includes differing readings which could indicate editorial changes by Johann Gottfried Walther. In both of the previous examples, we are left with earlier critical editions which attempt to exactly recreate the readings of each manuscript.[Citation needed]
- A few other notable manuscripts were taken away and later ended up in Poland, including PL-Kj Mus.ant.pract. N 250 (the only surviving copy of the ), the Schmahl Organ Tablatures, and PL-Kj Mus.ms. 40316 previously in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (one of the important manuscripts for the music of Peeter Cornet).
Poland
- The depressingly-small number of known tablatures of early organ music in Poland was made smaller by the burning of some manuscripts, including organ tablatures such as the Warsaw Musical Society Tablature.
- The musicologist Jerzy Gołos was deafened in one ear due to an explosion during the Warsaw Uprising.
Italy
- In a POW camp in Bellaria near Remini, a pipe organ was constructed out of scrap metal and wood.
