I Fought the Law... | Part 3
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David Hackett24. March 2023
This is part 3 of 3 in a series about composers who fell foul of authority, by David Hackett. Read part 1 and 2.
When a full bladder can land you in the clink
While living in America, Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) was once threatened with jail by heavy-handed US authorities who objected to some distinctly unorthodox harmonies that the composer had added to an arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner.
But the Russian maestro really was once arrested in Naples in the 1920s, along with a certain friend, for urinating against a public wall after the two had enjoyed a rather bibulous night out together.
The friend’s name was Pablo Picasso.
Better to be a conscientious objector in 1940s Britain…
As a young man, the British composer Michael Tippett (1905 – 1998) was something of a political reactionary. But his refusal to fight or serve in any way with the war effort during the Second World War would see him jailed for two months in 1943. Tippett could still joke that he was glad not to have taken a similar stance in Germany, where he would have instead faced a firing squad.
A serious-minded artist, Tippett preferred to respond to the international crisis with his powerful, humanitarian cantata, A Child of Our Time, written in 1941 and first performed (to great acclaim) in 1944.
… one who got away
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) had already endured two short spells in a debtors’ prison by the time he was taking part in revolutionary activity in Germany in the late 1840s. He not only attended demonstrations but organised the procurement of weapons (including hand grenades) and started his own insurrection-inciting newspaper. A warrant for his arrest was eventually issued in 1849.
He faced not only a prison sentence but possibly the death penalty. He fled Germany on a fake passport, living in Switzerland for the next 14 years, taking on conducting jobs and starting work on his famous Ring cycle. He only returned to his home country after a new government had agreed to grant him amnesty.
… and one who got away with it
Because of his nobleman status, Prince Carlo Gesualdo (1566 – 1613) was basically above the law in sixteenth century Italy, and he was never punished for the infamous murder of his wife and her lover.
The composer attempted a measure of atonement by organising daily beatings for himself (undertaken by his servants) and studying old religious relics. He also found the time to write some astonishingly beautiful and original motets.
To read more from David Hackett, go to www.musicbytheyear.com.