Lessons From Auschwitz Project
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Listen to Year 12 student Andre's wonderful musical composition as part of the Lessons From Auschwitz Project here:
About the project, student report by Andre G
When I was deciding what to make for my Lessons From Auschwitz project, I wanted to express what I had felt when visiting Auschwitz in a way that was personal to me. Deep down, I am a musician, so music felt like the right thing to make.
When I visited Auschwitz, what really stunned me was the size of the camps; especially Auschwitz II (Birkenau).
However, one thing which I also learnt from the project is that the statistics don’t account for the fact that each number was a human life.
So I tried reflecting the idea of the massive scale of human loss through the heavy use of reverb; but I also kept the distinct personality of the piano and made sure it was always present throughout each part of the song, as a kind of anchor for the listener to hold onto as the music rises into a crescendo. That way, the huge scale of loss can be felt, but without losing track of each soul that passed in these camps.
I also wanted to give off the idea of hope; even despite the tragedies that befell the people in the camp, I learnt of the stories of how many of them showed defiance in the face of despair, through acts of kindness or dissent. To reflect the idea of hope, a piano note is played constantly in the background, setting the tempo. This is despite almost being drowned out at some points by all the other instruments, showing that you can’t fully take away someone’s humanity.
Finally, linking back to the point of remembering each person, I inserted a bunch of different scenes of pre-war Europe (which you can hear the audio of at the start) to emphasise the diversity of the p