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Felicitas Kukuck: Composing Against All Odds

well acquainted with Paul Hindemith, who would later times a week from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm. Each stu-
become Felicitas’s primary composition teacher. Un- dent brought their pieces with them, and Hindemith
fortunately, the Schule am Meer closed just one year offered feedback on each piece with all students watch-
after Kukuck enrolled, as many students from Jewish ing and learning. Sometimes they collaborated on writ-
families were forced to emigrate due to the extreme an- ing three-part pieces at the chalkboard, each student
ti-Semitic sentiment in Germany. Kukuck finished her taking a part and working it into the other two parts.
studies at the progressive Odenwaldschule in 1935. For Kukuck, the most exciting aspect of learning from
The year 1933 was pivotal for the Kukuck family. Hindemith was his approach to melody. The melody
Despite changing the family’s name to Kestner two de- “wasn’t supposed to be a song, or a sonata theme, or a
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cades earlier, and although the family had long been fugue theme, but rather a melody in itself.” She would
members of the German Evangelical Church, the fam- later tell her daughter, Margret Johannsen, that Hin-
ily’s Jewish ancestry came to light, and Felicitas’s father demith saw melody like a jewel in a ring: the band of
lost his position at the university in Hamburg. He had the ring exists to decorate the jewel and bring out its
served, with honors, in the German military during beauty. Similarly, Kukuck’s writing begins with melo-
World War I, but that did not save him from the Nazi dy, and the rest of the music exists to help the melody
government. Their house was raided in 1933, and their shine.
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lives were made increasingly difficult as World War II Hindemith also influenced Kukuck’s perspective on
drew near. Kukuck wrote in her autobiography: composition as a practice. He encouraged his students
to consider the text, the performers, the audience, even
This was how German Jews were treated at the the performance space, when writing music. His les-
time by German Nazis. Even now this makes sons stayed with her:
me so furious that I feel absolutely miserable.
But I know I must not let go of it. Everyone Composing is my life. I am happy that I can
should know about this. All the details, so that compose, and that I can always learn more
something so cruel and inhumane will never about it. At the same time, it also means that
happen again. I am in contact with and among people. New
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compositions aren’t for the drawer, not for me.
Her parents and younger brother reluctantly emi- They should be sung and played. They are for
grated to England in 1939. Life in England wasn’t easy other people. 5
but was somewhat safer at that time.
In 1935, Kukuck wished to pursue post-secondary Hindemith left Germany in 1938, and Kukuck con-
studies in music education in Berlin but was told she tinued to work toward her final exam in piano perfor-
wouldn’t be allowed to teach in schools due to her Jew- mance, which occurred in 1939. Her exam selections
ish ancestry. She then enrolled at the Musikhochschule showed her dedication to Hindemith, who at the time
Berlin, where she studied flute and piano and passed was designated as a “degenerate” composer by the
the required exams to teach private lessons. At the Nazi Music Chamber. Kukuck included a piece by
same time she learned she had passed these exams, she Hindemith on her exam to honor him and his impact
received official notice that she was forbidden also from on her development as a musician and composer. She
teaching privately. Kukuck continued her studies, play- did this against the advice of her piano teacher, who
ing in the orchestra and singing in two choirs, in addi- was a member of the Nazi party (perhaps reluctantly)
tion to studying piano. She then had what she consid- and wore a swastika on his lapel. He was concerned his
ered a life-changing stroke of good fortune: she joined colleagues might not pass Kukuck due to her choice
the composition class taught by Paul Hindemith. 2 of repertoire but, in the end, he allowed her to play
Studying composition with Hindemith was a joy for the piece and likely shared her sense of relief when the
Kukuck. She and her classmates met with him three committee gave her passing marks. 6

60 CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4