About the project
Music and anti-Semitism converge at many points. In musicology, composition, criticism, theory, and performance, anti-Semitism has always been present, and most likely always will be. Most studies that combine the two concepts fall largely into three groups: the antisemitism of Richard Wagner, and whether this should affect the performance of his music; anti-Semitism against Felix Mendelssohn, and the pressures of assimilation; and music during the Holocaust. Whilst these topics are deeply interesting, and should not be excluded simply for their preeminence, they are clearly not the full picture. Anti-Semitism is pervasive in a society even if it is not acted out by anti-Semites. To me, at least, purely the fact of being Jewish in a non-Jewish world amounts to a crisis in self-confidence and a lack of complete trust in others. There does not need to be an authoritarian regime: being self-aware as a Jew - and being aware that at least one other person is aware - is enough. Musically spe...