Reviving archival sheet music composed by Jewish
musicians in ghettos and concentration camps

learn more

the resonance project

About

Amongst the anti-Semitic legislation (that you can explore in the “Silence” section of this site) aimed at complete removal of the Jewish population from any aspects of society, multiple laws prohibited Jewish involvement in cultural life. Jews were banned from participating in civil choirs; Jewish actors, art dealers, literary authors, journalists and publishers were forbidden from doing their jobs. Since March 31, 1935, Jewish musicians were no longer allowed to perform. Nevertheless, many people continued to write music, amongst severe oppression and unspeakable cruelty.

The Resonance Music project is a platform that allows you to listen to modern renditions of historical Jewish songs composed inside ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust. This platform also allows modern musicians to download, re-play, reinterpret and share this music. This project emphasises the strength and resilience of humanity in times of adversity and is a testament to the human spirit.
The music files originate from the Terezín research guide on the EHRI portal in a collection called “Music scores by Terezín composers”. The files have been curated by the Jewish Museum Prague.

curated mix

how to contribute

1 Choose a song

Choose one of the songs that inspires or moves you. Take a look at the history to learn more about the song, the ghetto and the composer.

2 Download

Download the suite of files for one of the curated songs, including PDF sheet music, WAV and MIDI. Alternatively, you can download the orignal piece of sheet music from the extened archival song list.

3 Replay, re-interpret, re-mix

Be creative! You can play the original, or let a small section of the song inspire something completely new. Adapt the song, mix it and let it inspire you to create something beautiful.

4 Share your file

Upload your audio file to Soundcloud with the tag #ehriresonanceproject. Make sure to include the composer's name and title of the original song so we can include it in the playlist! Go to Soundcloud

INFO@EHRI-PROJECT.EU

HERENGRACHT 380 1016 CJ AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS

Resonance project created by Bogdan Moroz, Claire Farbrace, Sangeeta van Beemen and Grace Houghton at MediaLAB Amsterdam

p5.js sketch: Noise Wave by bernikr, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike

EHRI RESONANCE PROJECT 2017