In the course of a multifaceted career, Karl Straube (1873-1950) rose to
positions of immense cultural authority in a German musical world caught
in unprecedented artistic and sociopolitical upheaval. Son of a German
harmonium-builder and an intellectually inclined English mother, Straube
established himself as Germany's iconic organ virtuoso by the turn of
the century. His upbringing in Bismarck's Berlin encouraged him to
develop intensive interests in world history and politics. He quickly
became a sought-after teacher, editor, and confidante to composers and
intellectuals, whose work he often significantly influenced. As the
eleventh successor to J. S. Bach in the cantorate of St. Thomas School,
Leipzig, he focused the choir's mission as curator of Bach's works and,
in the unstable political climate of the interwar years, as
international emissary for German art. His fraught exit from the
cantorate in 1939 bore the scars of his Nazi affiliations and issued in
a final decade of struggle and disillusionment as German society
collapsed.
Christopher Anderson's book presents the first richly detailed
examination of Karl Straube's remarkable life, situated against the
background of the dynamic and sometimes sinister nationalism that
informed it. Through extensive examination of primary sources, Anderson
reveals a brilliant yet deeply conflicted musician whose influence until
now has been recognized, even hailed, but little understood.
