Musician's tribute to tragic poet

By Laura Joint
BBC Devon

The cover of the album, released in November 2009

A poem by German lyric poet Gertrud Kolmar, who died in Auschwitz in 1943, is the inspiration behind a new piece of work by Devon composer and musician Julian Marshall.

Julian is best known for his 1978 Marshall Hain hit, Dancing in the City.

His latest work is a million miles away from that pop song - a 35-minute haunting cantata.

The work is called Out of the Darkness, after the poem by Kolmar, who was deported to Auschwitz as a Jew.

Julian was inspired by Gertrud's story and poetry

"She was a really remarkable woman," said Julian, who lives near Totnes. "She was a very, very highly thought of poet and very ahead of her time.

"She was a bit like Emily Dickinson, quite reclusive.

"As soon as I read her poems and started finding out about her as a woman, I was really drawn to her."

Out of the Darkness was premiered at Winchester Cathedral in 2009 and has also been performed to acclaim in London.

In November 2009, the cantata is released on CD and Julian and his singers and musicians are performing the work live at a number of venues, including St Mary's Church in Totnes on 28 November.

Speaking on the Judi Spiers programme on BBC Radio Devon, Julian said: "When I read Out of the Darkness (Aus dem Dunkel), I thought it just had to be a poem for a piece.

"When I used to write songs back in the old days, the words were like a necessary inconvenience.

"Now, it's entirely the other way around - I love working with lovely words and great text.

"For me, doing this was an act of service. I felt it was beholden to me to serve this wonderful piece of text in the best way I could.

"It was such a poignant, ghostly, eerie foretelling of the horrors to come.

"I just gave it my best shot.

"It's not a dark piece, it's not a Holocaust piece per se."

Gertrud Kolmar is little known outside of literary circles, but her work is highly regarded. She was born in Berlin in 1894 and died in Auschwitz after being arrested as a Jew and transported to the German concentration camp in Poland in 1943.

Gertrud Kolmar is recognised as one of the great German poets

"One of the great joys about this piece of music is that she is starting to get talked about and appreciated," said Julian. "I think she always felt a sense of inner freedom, even amongst the direst of circumstances.

"Her career had no chance of flowering under the Nazis."

The cantata features several vocalists, including solo soprano Melanie Pappenheim. The conductor is Howard Moody.

"I fell on my feet with the musicians," said Julian. "It's wonderful to work with them."

They have been invited to attend an annual conference in the poet's honour in Germany in March 2010, which Julian was delighted to accept.

The CD has been released with the assistance of the Arts Council - more details are on the Out of the Darkness website.

Click onto the audio link on this page to listen to the full interview on the Judi Spiers show. In it, Julian also talks about his early days in the music business when he had chart success with Marshall Hain and the Flying Lizards.

Out of the Darkness website