In 1937 many artists in Europe were experiencing a brutal form of censorship where writing the wrong kind of music could cost you your life. In Soviet Russia, despite the images of collective progress the economy was in chaos, and those who dissented from the collective theme were sent to labour camps in Siberia where only the strong or lucky returned.

The Music of Dmitri Shostakovitch
Born in 1906, one composer who emerged as a rising star in these times was Shostakovitch. He was a great performer (pianist) and his rebellion against the old-fashioned approach ensured that he was considered a rising star. However, just as he was finding his voice as a composer, his freedom came under attack. In 1932 the state took control of the work of artists and as a result only music and arts that glorified the state were permitted. All arts had to understood by everyone and could not be too gloomy or avant-garde. Complex music was not allowed.

However, between 1930 and 1932 he wrote an opera called 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'. This was when his problems started. This doom-laden story with its hard-hitting and exciting and powerful style provoked an outrage from Communist Party officials. Stalin himself walked out in disgust and Shostakovitch was lampooned in the press. It remains one of his most powerful works although its almost dissonant harmonic style was difficult for many to appreciate.

Harmonic Changes and the Move to Atonality
The beginning of the twentieth century had seen significant move towards new movements in harmonic style. However, it could be argued that this move to different harmonic ideas had begun much earlier with the music of Wagner ('Tristan' in particular). The intense late romantic works of Mahler and Richard Strauss had continued this lush harmonic soundscape. Schoenberg, a pupil of Strauss, had begun in this vein but with the support of his pupils, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, had begun to reject traditional harmonic language and moved towards a language where all notes were equal.

Prokofiev and Shostakovitch
Although Shostakovitch had remained in Russia, Prokofiev had moved to Paris. However, in 1933 he returned and resumed his work writing music that ultimately was not nearly as cutting edge as his previous work such as the Piano and Violin concertos and Piano sonatas. Although he was often under attack for his work it was Shostakovitch that was the 'marked man'. His Fifth Symphony is a masterpiece. At its first performance in the Philharmonic Hall in Leningrad on 21 November 1937 the work was critically acclaimed. However, despite its lyrical yet poignant melodic ideas and its use of triumphant brass it nevertheless suggested despair and hopelessness to some and a triumph of the people to others. Shostakovitch did receive significant criticism from some over this work but responded to this by subtitling the work 'A Soviet Artist's response to just criticism'. He in turn lived to tell the tale although many musicians in other parts of Europe did not.

Music in Nazi Germany
In Germany, some musicians were facing extermination. Although Stalin and Hitler were sworn enemies they were in fact two sides of the same coin. Both hated the avant-garde and in Hitler's case there was an obsessive desire to remove non-Aryan influences. This was not confined to simply art and music and in 1933 the infamous burning of Jewish books in public places began. This led to the removal from repertoires of certain types of music, such as that of Mendelssohn and Mahler, both Jewish composers. Even some of Mozart's works were included, such as his opera collaborations with the Jewish librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. The Nazis started to wage a war on living composers and musicians once they came to power in 1933. Many of Germany's musicians were Jewish, so this had a devastating effect on the country's cultural heritage.

Kurt Weill and 'The Threepenny Opera'
A composer who was particularly targeted was Kurt Weill. He was most famous for his 1928 collaboration, 'The Threepenny Opera' with the writer Bertolt Brecht, a left wing socialist writer. This classic piece of music theatre represented, to the Nazis, all that was wrong with the German artistic scene at the time. It was based on the English play 'The Beggar's Opera' by John Gay and featured low life characters such as Mack the Knife and songs such as 'The Ballad of Sexual Dependency'. It was a very popular hit with ten thousand performances in scores of countries. Weill was tipped off that he was about to be arrested so he fled to Paris and from there to America were he sought to become a writer of Broadway musicals.

Richard Strauss
Composers who stayed risked damaging their reputations. Richard Strauss remained, but although he was to support the Nazi regime by composing the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics, it is possible that he was trying to protect his daughter-in-law who was Jewish. It is also possible that he was not aware of what was going on at the time as by this time he was already an old man and possibly naïve about the real policies of the Third Reich. Meanwhile, in the concentration camps, Jewish musicians were required to make music and the orchestras flourished. This was no guarantee of their life but may have prolonged it in some cases.

The Rise of Jazz and Popular Music in America
The racial policies of Nazi Germany also extended to the work of black musicians, and consequently the popular music that would be known as jazz (that was taking Europe by storm) was also banned. In America it was flourishing, although many of its musicians would find that they too would be discriminated against because of their colour, although this did not always extend to their music. In Harlem, New York, jazz clubs such as 'The Cotton Club' flourished. Jazz celebrated the skills of the individual and the ability to improvise was essential. Duke Ellington was one of the great arrangers and musicians of this period. He was supported by able musicians such as Count Basie and Billie Holiday who captured the public's imagination. Although not mentioned on the programme, far more significant work was being done by the likes of Charlie Parker, who in turn would be followed by such jazz giants as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. White Jewish musicians were also able to flourish in this environment such as Benny Goodman, although not all of them had fled Europe in recent times but were second or even third generation Jewish émigrés. Duke Ellington's hit 'Caravan' is a typical cocktail of his musical ideas, exotic rhythms and almost improvisatory melodic lines. On Broadway, the centre for musical theatre, composers such as George Gershwin were enjoying huge hits. Although Gershwin died in 1937, his contribution to American music is huge and he is regarded by many as being the most important American composer due to his tremendous ability to use harmony and melodic ideas to great effect. He was also able to straddle the musical divide between the popular and the classical. His musical 'Shall We Dance', a film and theatre vehicle for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, featured such classics as 'They Can't Take That Away From Me'. His opera 'Porgy and Bess' is considered a masterpiece, as are many of his orchestral works.