Karl Muck and His Compatriots: German Conductors in America during World War I (And How They Coped)

The intense and often irrational hostility of Americans and their government toward Germans and Austrians during World War I is well known. A subtext of this hostility was the difficulty faced by conductors and musicians from these countries generally in trying to make music in so nativistic and alien in environment. Here, Bowles features Karl Muck and his compatriots--German conductors who are imprisoned in America during World War I. In addition, Bowles details the hardships undergone by these conductors and how they coped from such oppressions.