It’s been 80 years since Auschwitz was liberated, and although the German death camps represent one of the darkest times in human history, a light still shines through the arts and music created there.
That’s what the ShabbaTones Chorus will share in their Sunday, March 9, concert at the United Church of Gainesville, which celebrates music in survival by highlighting the works of European composers imprisoned in the death camps with “The Arts in Maintaining Humanity in WWII Death Camps—80 Years Later.”
“I researched the issue, and the finding was that there were many famous musicians in Europe, who were also prisoners,” said Richard Sadove, ShabbaTones president, who also sings bass in the chorus. “What was also surprising to learn was how therapeutic this was for the prisoners. So, the composers continued to compose and lead their fellow prisoners in singing… to help prisoners tolerate their horrid conditions.”
Sadove, who has a “day job” as a physician, began the research efforts, saying the “big surprise was to learn that these conductors did continue to compose music.”
Art and music played a significant role in aiding prisoners in the death camps of World War II. Great European composers were also prisoners at the same time. Even under these horrid conditions, they composed and led their companions at night in song until their death, Sandove explained.
The ShabbaTones Chorus will sing these discovered compositions, which helped these people feel alive, lift their spirit of humanity and provide a small sense of normalcy in a miserable time of life, Sadove said.
The ShabbaTones came into being about 10 years ago as a choral group that aims to preserve Jewish choir music through a wide spectrum of styles, eras, voicings, nationalities, languages and levels.
“We sing the music in so many different languages from so many different periods,” Sadove said. “From the time of (the Biblical) David up to the present. We sing in Ladino, we sing in Hebrew, we sing in English. Being in a choir, one must sing in so many different languages, and we do.”
The works chosen for the memorial concert performances reflect the voices of the choir itself.
“We’re singing 10 different pieces,” Sadove said. “We selected those that favored us and that we found musically appropriate. We need to have soprano, alto, tenor and bass.”
In a sense, the ShabbaTones are moving beyond Verdi’s Requiem, more properly known now as the Defiant Requiem, performed by Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt concentration camp (Terezín), just outside of Prague, during World War II. It is the best-known death camp composition.
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Defiant Requiem Foundation, prisoner Rafael Schächter led a presentation of the oratorio16 times, including one performance before SS officials and an International Red Cross delegation at Terezin.
But the Requiem was not the only music composed in the death camps.
“Our program is unique,” Sadove said. “I have never heard of anything like it before. Our program is almost entirely composed of the works of famous European composers who composed their work within the camps themselves.
“With the fall of communism, there was the possibility to do more research. So, a lot of the sheet music was found in a briefcase or a suitcase or behind a brick wall. The stories of the finding of the music are enough to write a story in and of itself.”
The concert will feature the work of 10 imprisoned composers, including Victor Ullmann, who was in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Some of the sheet music was carried out by survivors and made it to the United States. Almost all the composers died in the gas chambers, Sandove said.
Sadove talked about some of the pieces the chorus will present, including “March of the Partisans,” a song that was written in the Vilna Ghetto in what is now Lithuania.
“This was a song they sang among themselves. We were happy to find that and be able to sing that,” Sandove said.
The Price Library at the University of Florida’s Center for Jewish Studies has many of the books that relate to the songs that will be presented. Curator Rebecca Jefferson will be on hand to provide background on the pieces the ShabbaTones will be singing.
The ShabbaTones musical director is Allan Robuck retired as cantor at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Orlando.
Tickets are $20 and are available at the door at the United Church of Gainesville (1624 NW 5th Ave.). Tickets can also be purchased at Eventbrite or through the ShabbaTones’ Facebook page.