"Fremde Passagiere" is the title of a series of poems Ullmann wrote
expressing his views on life as he was facing death.  "I am alone.
The world is dead/The banner of the Anti-Christ is spread.  And God is
far/Upon his star..  " At one stage, Ullmann actually gave up music for
humanist philosophy.  The Six Lieder that Steve mentions in the DVD were
set, in 1937, to poems by the anthroposophist Steffen, with whom Ullmann
wrore an opera Der Sturz des Antichrist.  An urbane, worldly and
cosmopolitan person, his beliefs helped him deal with the insane double
think of Terezin, the show camp where orchestras were permitted to show
how "nice" the Nazis were.  The last two years of Ullmann's existence
coalesced all that had gone before.  "Musically", he wrote, "I have been
challenged not hindered, by Theresienstadt, that we did not just sit by
Babylon's waters bewailing our fate.  Our will to create culture was as
strong as our will to live".

The cantatas he wrote in camp have widespread circulation, not just
because of their connotations, but because they were expressly written
for ordinary people to perform, with limited resources.  The Kaiser of
Atlantis, for example, is scored for amatuer performance - children's
voices, mocking the figure of Death.  Ullmann was only a pupil of
Schoenbergs for a year, and like most of the students, even the sycophant
Webern, did not imitate him closely.  Eisler, who was much closer to
Schoenberg than ever Ullmann was, made no bones about opposing Schoenberg's
elitism.  For Ullmann, infuences such as French Melodie, very influential
in the 1930's, are perhaps worth investigating.

There's quite a bit of Ullmann on record - the Decca Entartete Musik
series for example, and Orfeo's series "Musica Rediviva".  His piano
music in particular is much admired.  Personally I know the songs best.
Because they are based on text, some written in camp by other prisoners,
they express what Ullmann felt - not hate, not self pity, but a despair
at the human condition, firmed by a kind of life force.  "Sagen kann
niemand, was morgen sein wird/immer inmitten, immer inmitten" (No one
can say what tomorrow will bring, always admidst, always admidst" (the
cycle of life).

Anne
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