New research on Norwegian musical life under occupation
A new international publication on Norwegian music life during the occupation has been published. The anthology contains contributions about the Bergen composer Anne-Marie Ørbeck, Geirr Tveitt and the Norwegian Composers' Association written by Arnulf Christian Mattes, Sjur Haga Bringeland and Arvid O. Vollsnes.
Main content
The title of the book is Persecution, Collaboration, Resistance - Music in the ‘Reichskommissariat Norwegen’ (1940–45), with Ina Rupprecht as editor, published by Waxmann Verlag, September 2020.
From the publisher's summary:
When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, the long lasting bilateral relations changed fundamentally. Immediately, the administration of the ‘Reichskommissariat Norwegen’ (responsible for culture and therein music together with the Norwegian puppet regime’s department for culture) implemented the adaption to the new, official National Socialist guidelines.The diversity of music in Norway during the occupation is presented in this book by Norwegian and German authors, confronting research on collaboration, persecution, and resistance for the first time as an international endeavour. The different essays illustrate not only examples of exile and persecution and ask for the consequences of Nazi politics on prominent and forgotten fates, but depict how Norwegian artists and their organisations positioned themselves towards collaboration or resistance during and after the war, as well as contrasting it with the impressions of German musicians, both military and civilian, playing in Norway during the occupation. Including Norway into the international discourse on ‘Music and Nazism’, the articles address readers both interested in the German occupation of Norway, and the implications the German administration and its Norwegian counterparts had on the music life.
The book can be ordered from the publisher's website.
It is also available as open access e-book.