Music and the Holocaust

This past Thursday, I attended a lecture that marked the 75^th Anniversary of Kristallnacht in the Numen Lumen Pavilion. Brian Nedvin, tenor, a voice professor and scholar of Holocaust-era music at Old Dominion University, presented “Music and the Holocaust” through the use of music, personal stories and visuals. Nedvin was able to use different languages such as Yiddish, Hebrew, English and German in order to create a more complete picture of the terrible events of the Holocaust.

Going into this lecture, I was unsure how the lecturer would incorporate the music element into the delivery of the message. Nedvin’s idea was to show the audience another side of the event, a more personal, real side of the Holocaust since the majority of the talk surrounding the event is impersonal and removed. The two main elements that helped achieve this goal was the use of specific stories of people in the Holocaust and the music written by those affected by the event.

Photographs that helped the audience match the name to a face that actually went through the experience accompanied these personal stories. When talking about each of the individuals, Nedvin was able to make each of the individuals stand out from each other and pull at the heartstrings of the audience. The stories helped make us as the audience connect to the issue at a more personal level and feel compelled to change our perspective of the event as a whole.

The musical element is what struck a chord with me as a member of the audience (too punny). The speaker had a strong tone to his voice and he was able to make the songs come alive. Listening to the music, the audience was transported back in time and felt as though they were experiencing the music as though it was the Holocaust. The music that was performed had strong emotional messages that came across so due to the diction, strong imagery and sentence structure. Since the music was written to reflect feelings and experiences of the tragedy, each song exuded raw emotion felt by those involved.