Hans Gal and the 'What a Life' Revue

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The mass internment of “enemy aliens”, meant that many highly educated, cultured and talented German and Austrian Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi oppression found themselves thrown together in the camps on the Isle of Man. Each camp had its own identity. Central Camp, where Grandpa was interned, had a much higher number of musicians than at other camps.

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“Music Behind Barbed Wire” is the aptly named diary written by the Austrian born composer and musician Hans Gal (1890- 1987) He was interned during the summer of 1940 in Central Promenade Camp at roughly the same time as our grandfather Siegfried. His diary is a vivid account of his experiences of life as an internee. It gives us real insights into camp life and conditions and provides the main source of information about the incredible musical activity that went on there.

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Gal had made a new life for himself in Edinburgh before he was arrested on 13th May and taken to Donaldson’s Hospital - a gloomy barrack-like building where internees slept on a straw mat on a hard school hall floor. He was there a week before being moved onto Huyton transit camp near Liverpool – a new housing estate with little to no furniture. Internees had to endure organisational incompetence,  poor hygiene and poor food rations as well as cope with being plucked from loved ones. The harsh realities of the experience clearly took it’s toll. Gal writes, “there’s not a spark of music left in my body. My brain is dry and dusty”. However, eventually, the need to do something positive and worthwhile began to take hold. His “Huyton Suite” was the result. He says of the 4 movement composition, “It grew like an asparagus”. It was scored for one flute and two violins - an unusual combination - chosen because this was all that was available to him at the time. Books, sheet music and musical instruments, if not confiscated, were scarce commodities.  When Gal ran out of manuscript paper, he gave a young music enthusiast the task of drawing musical staves on paper.

 

Rehearsals were disrupted, as at this time, many internees were being deported to Canada and Australia. Gal worried about his own son’s whereabouts. Two of the players were sent to Canada. Gal’s newly formed trio was also broken up as some of his players were to be transferred to the Isle of Man. Nobody could predict how long anyone would be held in a certain camp. Gal moved with his fellow internees to the Isle of Man when Huyton camp was disbanded. The Huyton Suite was eventually successfully premiered at Central Camp. It was tailor made for its audience. Gal includes “the roll call” – a daily event in the life of an internee – played by the flute. How ironic that the performance was interrupted by the real “roll call”!

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(To hear snippets of Gal’s Huyton Suite go to  http://www.hansgal.org/  Click on “Audio Samples” and scroll down the list until you get to Op 92 Huyton Suite. Then choose a sample to play).

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Gal played a leading role in enabling the musical activities to flourish at Central Camp. House concerts were arranged. Free tickets were made and distributed to ensure seating, as space was limited. The lounges held a maximum of around 50 people. The popularity of these events meant that programmes were repeated several times to meet demand. The standard of performance was high and this was much appreciated by everyone, including the authorities, who had been invited out of politeness and praised the performance highly.

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House 5 and House 14 were the venues for the concerts as they had the best pianos. Gal appreciated the addition of these instruments at Central, after the lack of resources at Huyton. However, of the many other clapped out and out of tune uprights in the camp, he berates “the constant hammering of starved piano lovers who’ve thrown themselves on this “welcome booty” – it’s enough to endanger the ear drums."

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The Revue – “What a Life” – another new composition

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This was the brain child of fellow internee, Austrian born, Georg Michael Hoellering, an  experienced and well established film producer and director, who’d worked with Bertolt Brecht back in 1932. He wanted to put on a light entertainment revue, to cheer everyone up. He asked Gal to compose the music for it. Gal did this from his hospital bed. He was suffering from a very severe skin allergy. The text was written by Otto Erich Deutsch, a musicologist,  who later became a famous Schubert scholar. The songs would be performed in both English and German.

 

There were two performances – the first on the 2nd September and the second on the 26th September.

Both were sold out performances and were held at the Palace Theatre in Douglas. This was certainly a large venue with a proper stage and orchestra pit. It held around 2000 people, but camp restrictions meant it couldn’t be filled to capacity. Nevertheless the audiences for both performances were sizeable.

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Gal had been used to big orchestras and playing major stages, but for this revue, he only had a few string players, a few voices, a flute, a clarinet and a piano. Preparations for the performances saw Hoellering spend much time going back and forward from the theatre to Gal’s hospital bed.

 

The songs in “What a Life” are about the actual everyday life experiences of the internees. The poster for the Revue, which was created by the artist Paul Humpoletz, reflects this in its image of a ballad singer, who is playing a harp strung with barbed wire and who is sitting on a crate of porridge.

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After the first performance, Hoellering decided he wanted to put the ballad singer on the stage. It became one of the main elements of the show. He appeared three times. The second performance was substantially revised and extended as a result.

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"The Ballad of the German Refugee" - the special refrain is the speech of the arresting officer.

(To hear a snippet  of this song, play from the start up to 1min, 40 seconds).

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"The Seagulls Song" describes the next part of the story – being interned behind barbed wire, unimaginable for a civilised person who’s done nothing wrong.

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"Quodlibets" – Gal wrote this to show that music practice was going on everywhere in the camp. His ten part counterpoint of harmonies reflected this and won him much praise.

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"Daily Exercise Song" - the need to keep fit in camp.

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"The Song of the Double Bed" – with an actual double bed on stage – having to share your bed with a stranger.

(Go to to hear this. Lasts 2.58 mins)

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"The Broom Song" – about the trials of cleaning your accommodation.

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"The Ballad of Jacob" – about the idea of finding or being a scapegoat. This was a mechanism for channelling anger

(Gal calls him the “Wandering Jew” in his diary)

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"Serenade". This is the final piece performed by the main singers in the revue – 1 baritone and 1 tenor. It is really about the experience of being shouted at. The internees who would be reading their books at night, would have been frequently told by the sentries to “Put that light out!” to enforce the blackout.

 

The “What A Life” Revue project as a whole was really quite unique, given the circumstances in which it was created and the people who were involved in the making of it. All the more remarkable knowing that Gal had requested permission to stay an extra day to conduct the second performance on the 26th September, after his release date had been set on the grounds of medical hardship. The camp commander found this to be “very sporting” of him and granted permission. Gal received much applause and had to submit to endless ovations with his spotted brown face and swollen eyes. The power of music to lift the spirits cannot be overstated. It kept Gal going during this time which he said was the worst period in his life.

 

Other Notable Musicians Interned on the Isle of Man

 

Norbert Brainin (1923-2005) violinist from Austria and member of Amadeus Quartet

Siegmund Nissel (1922 – 2008) violinist from Munich and member of Amadeus Quartet

Peter Schidhoff  (1922-1987) violist and violinist from Austria and member of Amadeus Quartet

Paul Hamburger(1920- 2004) – pianist, accompanist and later radio producer from Vienna

Ferdinand Rauter (1902-1987) – pianist and teacher from Austria.

Co-Founder of the Refugee Musicians Committee in 1941

Hans Keller (1919-1985) – musicologist born in Vienna.

Peter Gellhorn (1912-2004) German conductor, composer, pianist and teacher. He  wrote a piece called “Cats” and “Mooragh ” – setting FF Bieber’s poem of the same name to music – see below.

 

Ralph Vaughan Williams chaired the Home Office Committee for the Release of Interned Alien Musicians and also served on the Refugee Musicians Committee. He helped to get Peter Gellhorn and many other musicians released from internment.

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Mooragh July 1940

 

"Beyond barbed wire

The sea,

And the sun’s last fire

Burning up a tree

And a cottage on the green hill.

Gulls idle on the beach,

Then rise into the air and cry.

The field across the bay we cannot reach,

We can but pace our cage and let our hungry eye

Take in far loveliness which will

Remain

Beyond our sadness and beyond despair,

Beyond our stubborn hope, beyond our fair

And puzzled sense of justice. They will stand,

This bay, their pier, this beach, this sea,

This distant friendliness of wooded land -

To bid farewell to us when we are free."

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Snippet of ‘Mooragh’ (Play first 45 seconds)

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 JR 2020