In Memoriam420
Sidonie Cassirer, who taught German at MHC from 1960 to 1990, serving as department chair for thirteen years, died March 14 at the age of eighty-one. She was active in the Modern Language Association of America, serving on the executive council and the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. She leaves her husband, Tom Cassirer, and a daughter, Frances Cassirer.
Thomas's comment:
She was sent to the conservatory on the recommendation of her teachers. Her father was proud to have such a gifted child but would not let her play when he was home because he did not care for music. Her mother, a native Viennese who felt exiled in "provincial" Germany, welcomed the opportunity to have her daughter play tunes from the Viennese operettas of her youth, but did not want to hear music that was too serious. Outside the apartment, in the streets of Nazi Germany, the air resounded with the songs and military music of the Nazi movement. In that atmosphere of confusion and hostility she discovered in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach a world of order and beauty. It became her lifetime inspiration and, in a sense, her shield against the outside world. |
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