Cultural accommodation and exchange in the refugee experience: a german-jewish musician in shanghai

• Published in: Ethnomusicology forum Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 119 - 151
• Main Author: Utz, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01.01.2004; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: China; Chinese music; Composers; Compositional styles; Cultural Influences; Culture; Ding Shande; Ethnomusicology; Exchange; Exile Shanghai; Fraenkel, Wolfang; Fraenkel, Wolfgang; Jewish Music; Jews; Julius Schloß; Karl Steiner; Konoe Hidemarō (1898-1973); Mario Paci; Modernism; Music; Music composition; Music criticism; Music education; Music teachers; Music transcriptions; Musical Influences; Musical Modernism in China; Musical performance; Musicians; Orchestral music; Orchestras; Refugees; Sang Tong (b. 1923); Shanghai Conservatory of Music; Shanghai Municipal Orchestra; Twelve-Tone Music; Twelve-Tone Technique in Asia; Vinzenz Hundhausen (1878-1955); Wolfgang Fraenkel (1897-1983); Shanghai, China; Germany
• ISSN: 1741-1912; 1741-1920
• DOI: 10.1080/1741191042000215309

This article uses biography as a means of penetrating the musical culture of Shanghai at a particular historical moment. The multi-faceted interaction of the German-Jewish refugee composer Wolfgang Fraenkel with his Chinese host environment between 1939 and 1947 affords a rare opportunity to observe the processes by which musical influence takes place - an influence flowing both from Fraenkel to his Chinese students and from Chinese culture into Fraenkel's own music and thinking, however tentatively. Although in his public and semi-public musical life, Fraenkel was pragmatic rather than idealistic, he was one of the few who were willing to confront ethnic separation and prejudice.