Klarinet Archive - Posting 000121.txt from 2004/12

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Scaramouche
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 13:03:33 -0500

Dan Leeson posted re: Sigurd Rascher:

<<<People left Germany in 1939 for only three reasons: (1) they were
ethnically unsuitable to remain in Germany and were smart enough to get out;
(2) they were politcally unsuitable and were smart enough to realize that if
they stayed, they'd be in deep trouble; (3) they had a moral conscience and
refused to remain in a country that violated such basic human rights.

The preponderance of those who left were in the first category, far fewer in
the second, and only a very small percentage in the third. I was simply
curious to understand whether he was a category 2 or 3, but I doubt very
much that he was ethnically unsuitable for the Germany of that era; i.e., he
was neither a Jew nor a person of Jewish descent.

Whichever slot he fell into, he was good forsight because as he built his
famous and long lasting career in the U.S., Germany had the wrath of the
world fall on them and did not even begin to
recover until the mid 1950s.>>>

It's possible that there is a fourth or fifth reason, too, Dan. Not to
overlook the obvious, but SR was a soloist - he travelled extensively to ply
his trade. Given that, for whatever reason political or otherwise, perhaps
he just followed the trend of where the good gigs were. It could have
simply been (4) economic self interest. Or even (5) the hot chicks up in
Sweden. Saxophonists were the rock stars of the day, no?

I suspect that we'll never really know the "truth" behind either why SR left
Germany or the genesis of Scaramouche, even if we were to ask SR directly.
While quite the virtuoso, he was a somewhat odd unit. He liked to have
music dedicated to him (who doesn't?). Cat could play, though.

The one thing that *really* irks me about SR is that he was teaching at the
Eastman school at the same time that Freddie Fennell was making the series
of recordings with the Wind Ensemble. Why on Earth didn't they record the
Dahl concerto?

kjf

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