Robert Peters doesn't believe that Webern went through a Nazi phase: >...I am sorry but it is nonsense to say this about Webern whose avantgarde >compositions brought him disdain by the Nazis. Webern worked for the >Singverein and the Vienna Workers Symphony Concerts till 1934, both >organizations sponsored by the Social Democratic Party.... I can understands Robert Peters' indignation because it reflects received wisdom. But the circumstantial evidence Robert Peters cites is unfortunately merely a truncated version of reality. The truth seems to be that Webern was a Nazi party member from some time in the thirties unto the party's end. It's also true that he is never known to have flaunted his membership. The received wisdom, that he was a naif when it came to politics, is nothing but a charitable way of thumbnailing his record. It's true that he was associated with musical organizations that were close to the Social Democrats. But it also seems to be true that he collaborated in at least one musical venture associated with the Christian Socials, the Social Democrats' enemies. There's documentation on that and a fast sampling of it is available at www.wiener-symphoniker.at/gesch/ge020301d.htm He had no profound ideological bond with the Socialists though he had a formal one with the National Socialists. In the event when maneuvering in politics, Webern played the field. His connection with the Nazis is a finding I ran into when, right after WWII, I served in the US Army in Austria. Webern was shot to death by a G.I. The murder occurred in the American Zone of occupation and thus was investigated by us. I was in the section of the headquarters of the U.S. Forces in Austria that conducted liaison with the Austrian government. We thus got to see what was reported by investigators and part of it concerned Webern's political background. The dossier contained evidence that he had been a longtime member of the National Socialist Party--and never mind the party's attitude towards his kind of music.Later on, as I worked as a foreign correspondent in Central Europe and Germany I repeatedly got corroboration from Austrian sources, even when niot specifically seeking it. Thing is, that association with totalitarian regimes tends in general to be a widespread and very often clandestine. And symbiosis between ideological enemies was also not rare. In the days of the Dollfuss/ Schuschnigg regime it was not unusual for Nazis and Sozis to fraternize. In many cases this came to pass as they shared prison cells. Bruno Kreisky's biography, that of a late (Jewish) Social Democratic chancellor, bears that out demonstratively. Oh, and as to the chameleon aspects of life in inter-war Austria there's to be cited the longtime predisposition for an Anschluss with Germany of that icon of Social Democracy, (sometime Bundespraesident) Karl Renner, as well as the country' leading novelist, Robert Musil. Unlike Webern, those two at least had the wit to think better of it after the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler. Denis Fodor