Xenophobia in the leadup to WWI
Dec. 21st, 2018 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breathedout"In Britain, too, intellectuals, writers, and artists of all kinds were banding together into a new defensive order. The irony is, that until that point, inclusion in the British cultural elite had demanded a demonstrable familiarity with the German greats: Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, Wagner, and the rest. Samuel Hines:
"The Times, October 1:
"German musicians and conductors with German names were banned. The conductor of the Torquay Symphony, whose name was Basil Hindenberg, changed his name in 1915 to Basil Cameron. This conductor had been born Basil Cameron, but in order to get a conducting job in England before the War he’d had to become Hindenberg."
—BBC Radio “Words for Battle”: Francine Stock begins her exploration of the culture of the Great War in 1914 with the mobilization of the word.
In the prom concerts, for example, before the War, Mondays were always all Wagner concerts. But in August of 1914 the prom programs were all revised and German music was replaced by English and French music. Wagner concerts were quietly dropped. Patriots may have been pleased, but nobody came to the concerts.
"The Times, October 1:
“A boycott of alien musicians: proposal to employ British artists only”
"German musicians and conductors with German names were banned. The conductor of the Torquay Symphony, whose name was Basil Hindenberg, changed his name in 1915 to Basil Cameron. This conductor had been born Basil Cameron, but in order to get a conducting job in England before the War he’d had to become Hindenberg."
—BBC Radio “Words for Battle”: Francine Stock begins her exploration of the culture of the Great War in 1914 with the mobilization of the word.
