LIDA MANUKYAN
Staff Writer
Pepperdine Associate Professor of Music Dr. Lincoln Hanks has composed a number of musical works over the years, but his most recent composition, “Tegel Passion,” has a historical foundation unlike most: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
The compelling oratorio — a musical term for composition that features a text that is dramatic in character and usually based upon a religious theme — chronicles the last days of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who risked his life fighting Hitler’s rule.
“In this story, you have a singular man against a Nazi regime on his own creating a religious movement,” said Hanks, who teaches a number of music classes, including music theory, keyboard skills and composition. “I chose to convey the final moments of his life spent in the Tegel prison.”
“I felt like I had a mission to communicate his story and the humanness of this man,” he continued. “His story is one of great drama.”
Drama is only the tip of the iceberg when talking about the German Lutheran pastor and theologian who participated in the German resistance movement against Nazism in the 1930s.
On the eve of World War II, when the Nazi regime came to power in Germany, many Protestant churches were forced to declare their allegiance to the Protestant Reich Church and support Nazi ideology. In protest to the anti-Semitism that engulfed Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer participated in the establishment of the Confessing Church, which refused to align itself with Nazism.
When the war broke out, Bonhoeffer joined a hidden group of military officers who sought to overthrow Hitler and assisted in the escape of many Jews to Switzerland.
Unfortunately, Bonhoeffer was caught, charged with conspiracy and imprisoned. He was then transported to several concentration camps and prisons, including Tegel, where he wrote essays, poems and letters. Bonhoeffer befriended Nazi guards, and with their help his texts were preserved. More than a half a century later, these texts are the inspiration for the music composed by Hanks in “Tegel Passion.”
“The composition is, in essence, the final scenes of the last act of an Opera,” said Hanks, referring to the design of the piece. “It was written for a small orchestra, a solo singer, and a choir, which sometimes acts as Bonhoeffer’s stream of consciousness.”
Hanks is in no way an amateur to the music scene. With a master’s degree in applied music, and both a master’s and doctorate degrees in music composition, Hanks has composed several works besides “Tegel Passion,” including “Driftwood,” “O Nata Lux,” “Fantasy for Trombone and Piano” and “Thus I Create the Dance.”
Hanks has also won numerous awards including the ASCAP Foundation/Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and most recently the David Lipscomb University Distinguished Alumnus Award in Arts and Humanities.
Hanks, musically trained in piano since the age of 5, said setting the poems to music was the easiest part of the entire project.
“I find that I can communicate courage and vulnerability quickly in my music,” he explained. “It was easy to find these two elements; they were always there. It was much harder to make sure as I compose the piece, that there was a message for everyone in the audience. The hardest part was to share a human story anyone could pick up on.”
The French novelist Gustave Flaubert once said of his renowned fictional character, “Madame Bovary, is me,” referring to the way he immersed himself into her character.
When asked to comment on Flaubert’s infamous quote, Hanks said, “I believe that for the strongest effect, it is better to be the observer and have an objective point of view of a character that one is trying to convey.”
Though Hanks retained an objective stance toward Bonhoeffer, it did not keep him from becoming emotionally involved while putting his story to music.
“I learned from him and the character of his life,” he said. “I found myself weeping in the midst of the story. I was wrapped up and felt touched by his life. His death was not a tragedy in the sense that it was a result of his commitment to the Christian faith, a sort of martyrdom.”
In December, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, created controversy by denying the Holocaust, calling it “a myth.” “Maybe we have just not put to rest this bigotry that is reflected in so many conflicts,” Hanks said. “It is and always was human nature at its worst.
“World War II really showed the world the horror of what human beings are capable of. Behind it a lot of the time is deep-seated guilt. When you have that kind of guilt, you will have a reaction against it,” Hanks said.
In his novel “The Idiot,” Fyodor Dostoevsky’s main character declares, “Beauty will save the world.” Upon hearing this phrase, Hanks said. “Well, although I am a Christian, I can step away from my Christo-centric perspective and say that hatred is an outward direction from internal fears, a lack of education and even cowardice.”
“Love, on the other hand, is giving up all of that,” Hanks said. “Hatred is so selfish, and love is not. We must find ways to transcend the negative and hateful elements in the world.”
Essentially, this is philosophy of “Tegel Passion.” Bonhoeffer’s story conveys the message that hostility must be defied and conquered with righteous human nature.
As for the future of the oratorio, Hanks said he hopes it will be performed at Pepperdine.
“I don’t know when, but we are working on other possible performances, or even a recording,” he said.
02-15-2007