RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”Émigré Composers in America, 1933-1945
From 1933 to 1945, the period of Nazi Germany, a number of prominent European composers fled their homelands and sought refuge in the United States. Many were subjects of interest in the American journal Modern Music (New York, 1924-1946). Sketches by Viennese artist Benedikt Fred Dolbin (a pen name for Fred Pollack), a composition student of Arnold Schoenberg, include some of the most well-known composers of the period. After establishing a successful career drawing for a number of Austrian and German publications–including Der Wiener Tag, Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, and Berliner Tageblatt–Dolbin, of Jewish descent, received a Berufsverbot order, which prohibited his artwork from appearing in the German press. Soon after, Dolbin, like the composers he sketched below, emigrated to America.
Modern Music, Vol. XVIII No. 2 (January-February 1941): [104-105].
RIPM search tip: To view more illustrations in Modern Music, access RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, and fill in the following fields: Periodical = Modern Music [1924-1946]; Type = Illustration. For more information on Modern Music, click here.
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