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Resistance – Symphony and Film

„Resistenza“ Op. 39 is a three-movement symphony by Alfred Huber.

FormThree-movement symphony
Durationapprox. 25 minutes
CastLarge symphony orchestra Cast list
FilmAnimation as rear projection for the symphony

The resulting animated film is intended as an integral part of the work and is to be performed together with the symphony as a rear projection.

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Trailer

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Musical example

From the 1st movement of „Resistenza“ Op. 39

Resistance: Connecting music and film

With the film created specifically for Alfred Huber's symphony „Resistenza – 8. September,“ we want to make contemporary music more accessible.

So-called „new“ music (meaning currently emerging contemporary music) is difficult for many people to understand. In our view, this is also due to how some works are structured. While they show how complex our world is, their form can make access more difficult. This easily creates the impression that new music is meant only for a small circle. This, in turn, can limit its political impact.

That is why we want to open up new paths to this music. Images strongly shape how we see the world today. Therefore, we combine music with film. The images are intended to help people better understand the often abstract sounds. In this way, we want to convey our thoughts and stimulate conversation.

Art, politics, and the good life

Even Aristotle saw man as a being who by nature belongs to a political community. This is about more than mere coexistence. This community, the polis, is intended to make a good life possible.

Almost 2,500 years later, Western democracies have achieved a great deal. For example, the state is bound by law and order. In addition, social assistance provides protection in times of need. Furthermore, many people are able to help shape politics. Nevertheless, money, opportunities, and influence continue to be unequally distributed.

For some years now, concern for democracy has been growing. Populists campaign with simple solutions for complex problems. At the same time, myths about secret powers are finding an audience. Debates are becoming sharper, while the willingness to converse is declining. This makes open exchange more difficult. In many countries, democracy and its institutions are also under pressure.

Education and access to politics

Studies show that education, interest in politics, and the way people get involved politically are connected. However, it does not follow from this who a person votes for. Nor can simple judgments about entire groups be justified with this.

Furthermore, other things can play a role:

  • How safely people live and whether they fear for their future.

  • What they experience in their region.

  • Which media they use.

  • Whether they feel heard by politicians.

Political conflict has also changed. Concerns about money and work remain important. At the same time, unequal opportunities for education and political influence shape the debate. Right-wing populists seize upon such concerns, turning them into simple stories about politics.

What we can do ourselves

When the conflict keeps getting harsher, you can feel powerless. Nevertheless, there are ways to get involved. For example, we can inform ourselves, talk with others, and stand up for art and culture. In doing so, it is also important to take other perspectives seriously.

Education and an understanding of art therefore mean more than just knowledge to us. They should help people to judge for themselves and to understand the perspectives of others. At the same time, this includes recognizing political opponents as part of democracy. Because a democracy needs space for free and fair debate.

Music, film, and a look into history can create space for this. In this way, they can show how other people live and what they have experienced. Through this, new perspectives can be discovered. In addition, this approach allows us to start a conversation about differences and contradictions.

Sources: Aristotle, Politics I,2; Bernhard Weßels, Social Report 2024 (bpb); V-Dem Institute, Democracy Report 2026.

Read more about the symphony

Blog article about the symphony

Music and Film
History
Politics

Trigger

Faced with the multiple crises of the present day, we began the Resistenza project during a Covid-related lockdown. Out of conversations within our family, a broader exchange gradually emerged with friends, musical companions, fellow students, and teachers from the field of Digital Arts. Initially, we were driven by a general unease with the populist zeitgeist from both the right and the left. However, at the latest with the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it became clear to us that individuals, too, can take a stance. The reciprocal claim that the respective opponent is fascist or even National Socialist shows how vaguely these terms are used in political discourse. Applied broadly to entire groups, they frequently convey the idea of general „evil“ rather than a historically or politically precise classification. A helpful introduction is provided by Roger Griffin's „Fascism: An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies“.

New music and film

How do you link politics, film, and music? Science tests theories using facts and data. Art takes a different approach: it can draw inspiration from science, but it raises questions rather than providing definitive answers. Its codes and metaphors are not always self-explanatory; this is especially true for music. A second medium, in our case film, can clarify connections. However, if codes and metaphors are used again, it can also make the content more enigmatic. We were aware from the beginning that this approach would demand a lot from the audience. We therefore established contexts that might seem to some like a category mistake, but helped us to bundle the large amount of material.

Music and film as a metaphor

That brings us to the first movement of the symphony. For our artistic approach, we focused on Italian fascism from the very beginning. Adorno's much-discussed remark, „To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,“ was present in our minds. National Socialist crimes present every artistic representation with fundamental ethical and aesthetic questions. Looking at Italian fascism therefore seemed to us a more suitable approach. Violence remains difficult to depict there as well; however, music can make forms of tension, threat, and escalation tangible without merely illustrating them. If one looks at current populist viewpoints and the arguments of early fascists from the 1920s, recurring motifs emerge: envy, Greed, Inertia, Pride, Striving for power and wrath. The reference to the classical Christian deadly sins, which Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy linked with drastic penalties, therefore suggested itself. Dante's writing and his personal „resistenza“ against what he perceived as a dehumanized and cruel Florentine policy have formed an overarching arc for the project since the beginning of its adaptation and shape its ciphers and metaphors.

1st sentence

Musically and cinematically, the first movement becomes the poet’s dream, warning of the political consequences of human hubris and violence. Dante’s Florence serves as a historical backdrop; Italy’s experiences in the 20th century form the second point of reference. Dante himself appears several times and, as the protagonist of „spiritual formation,“ is cast into the abyss by Mussolini at the end of the first movement. Prior to this, the effects of sloth, the lust for power, greed, envy, wrath, and pride are illustrated using a primeval man as an example. Musically, the work moves between the use of symbolic motifs as a form of personal processing and classical program music, employing various compositional techniques. The film and the music are each intended to stand on their own and, ideally, complement one another when performed together. With regard to the Divine Comedy we are in Purgatory.

2nd sentence

The transgressions initially still appear correctable; the second movement then leads at a rapid pace into catastrophe and is modeled on the Inferno. The rise of fascism now appears irreversible. Mussolini's antisemitic speech of September 18, 1938, in Trieste, in which he publicly propagated the regime's racist policies, already serves as the rhythmic model for the trumpet entry in bar 9. Musically, things initially still move upward a bit; an organized Resistenza does not yet exist at this point. From bar 63 onward, an avalanche sets in that buries everything beneath it. During the minutes-long descent, in the sense of Roger Griffin, central myths of the regime are evoked: cultural superiority, the center of the world church, the mutilated victory of the First World War – as the Italian counterpart to the German stab-in-the-back myth – and finally futurism. The sentence culminates in images of blood and violence. From measure 153 onward, the hell of the violent perpetrators and traitors dominates. Like Dante’s Inferno, the second movement does not end with the violent perpetrators and their stream of blood, but in the coldness of betrayal. The Resistenza is not exempt from this either. In the end, everyone freezes; only the hope for a better future leads into the third movement. The second movement ends with the score instruction „scharf abreißen“ [break off sharply].

3rd sentence

April 25, 1945, which is commemorated today as Liberation Day, did not bring an abrupt end to the violence. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 people were summarily executed in the first year following the end of the war. The young republic thus emerged during a phase of ongoing political retribution and counter-violence. The Italian state had a difficult beginning. The musical themes of the first movement take shape again, now more tonal and settled. Reconstruction is in everyone's interest, and attention turns to shaping the future state: Should Italy become a constitutional monarchy or a republic once more? In the referendum of June 2 and 3, 1946, 54.27 percent voted for the republic and 45.73 percent for the monarchy. From measure 25 onward, a polyphonic fugue slowly takes over the musical action. The Polesine flood of 1951, which in the 1953 film The Return of Don Camillo is picked up, the musical narrative leads once again into chaotic conditions. Historically, it was the young republic's first major natural catastrophe and triggered a broad movement of solidarity. Afterward begins that roughly seventy-year phase that we look back on today.

Questions to the future

Have people been successfully convinced of the value of reason in these years? Can a party like Fratelli d’Italia continue along the path of the Italian Constitution? What about other populist parties in Europe? Are we facing their normalization and integration into the constitutional framework, or a new fascist wave? Nobody knows. As long as this is the case, we should remain vigilant. Dante has dreamed his fever dream to the end. His facial expression remains skeptical; the dance of the stars with which his Paradise ends, exhibits dark spots. To this skepticism, our Symphony Op. 39 „Resistenza“ is dedicated.

Sources