Book Description
This book makes no attempt to cover all aspects of Eisler's huge output. It does however draw together most of the main threads of his life and deals in detail with several of them. At the heart of the book is the first English translation of the libretto to the unwritten opera "Johann Faustus", a text of great literary distinction which represents one of Eisler's most sustained creative efforts. Along with other previously untranslated Eisler writings there are articles by several internationally recognised literary critics and musicologists representing a wide range of approaches. The editor, the only British pupil of Eisler, has contributed a substantial essay on the early music.
David Blake is Professor of Music at the University of York. He was awarded the 1960 Mendelssohn Scholarship, which enabled him to study with Hanns Eisler in East Berlin as a Meisterschuler of the GDR Akademie der Kunste. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

exhaustive collection on the Schubert of the 20th Century.
This is an exhaustive survey of Eisler's work,music,aesthetic and life. David Blake the editor and composer studied with Eisler for a time. Blake also has wonderful essays on Ernst Bloch.
Eisler was a marxist activist composer in every respect of the term, he simply worked at whatever the movement and music, the arts needed, and this endeavor was a problematical one even today.
He emerged from Vienna and studied with Arnold Schoenberg,and is never really recognized by anyone(other than Schoenberg) as the third great student of the 12 Tone School(Berg and Webern the obvious others).But bourgeois prejudice has made Eisler actually throughout history, an outcast in the new music community. Even Luciano Berio had nothing perceptive to say about Eisler's work,simply that it was too simple. This from a composer (Berio) who found the shortest distances the dilution and homogenizations of the post-serial languages.He is still however deeply respected by the younger generation composers certainly in England Cardew and Skempton, and Smith,and the Germany,composers H.K. Gruber and H. Goebbels.
Eisler early had found the thread of politics to music writing pieces and conducting within collective settings as the worker chorus,mass songs(United Front Song)(Forwards)became the focus for this period prior to the rise of fascism, where the ruling classes of the globe did have in fact something to fear, with the system not working, the Depression.
With the eradication of the Left,The Nazis had put a price on Eisler's head so he immigrated and remained in the USA living as a film composer in Hollywood.This was a place he found the greatest hypocrisy in the arts.He was only to be deported after the war during the Witch Hunts of the McCarthy era.
This collection of essays reveals Eisler not only the composer but the theoretician,of speaking on problems of creativity,history,structure,text and concept. He found himself on Lecture Tours,throughout his life and this process became an integral part of his music, knowing how to speak to people is just as important as writing music.
Here included are some of his primary essays that perhaps had more mass appeal "On the situation of modern music"and "On the bourgeois concert business". He does have vigorous essays, actually translations of his Lectures on aspects of the sociology of music,on finding the class origins for instance within the history of music,topics seldom discussed even within academia today.Much of this material is still in its original German.He found it a challenge as the essay here by Albrecht Betz"Music and politics:theme and variations" on the paradigm of tracing the line that exists between outright propaganda and serious music.This became an art in and of itself when you also contemplate Brecht's contribution to poetry and literature, where he discovered new literary genres placing his poetry in forever differing context.Eisler as collaborator with Brecht was certainly influenced by this affinity for the new in terms of the aestjetic and structure.(Betz has his own booklength study of Eisler.)And Eisler never simple took the easy route and maintained a sophisticated sense of the aesthetic throughout his life,even coming to terms with atonality the last years of his life. He did in fact write the most interesting atonal music during his early years,a topic Blake takes up as the "First and Second Piano Sonatas", and the pieces"Zeitungausshnitte".Opus 11 "Newspapperclippings" for Voice and Piano.Eisler had a gift for lyricism and transforming the most arduous text into power,directedness and lilting gentleness. Examples abound as his"An den kleinen Radioapparat""to my radio",the" Drei Wiegenlieds" "Three Lullabys","Change the World it Need it!". He found irony for instance in the song on the tric(man of the street) soliciting a prostitute,where he interweaves the famous harmonic progression from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", that love can be bought, it is simply another commodity as anything else.
Eisler and Brecht being in the forefront of the issues of politics during the pre-and post war times in the arts were frequently the subject of discussion,even Walter Benjamin knew this body of work, and found the genre of "mass art" to be progressive as Brecht practiced it. Along this line Gunter Mayer provides a chapter "Eisler and Adorno" a formidable rendering of these issues between committment and marxist mandarin-ism Adorno.Adorno thought that mixing politics and music only cheapened one for the other. That the highest form of subversion was actually the privatized practicing bourgeois artist as recluse,not sacrificing his aesthtic for the market or the street, as Schoenberg,Berg and Webern had admirably done.
The great works of Eisler are surveyed,primarily the "Songs" the "Holderlin Fragment" is given one chapter by here as well the collaborations with Brecht, "Die Mutter" "Die Massnahme", "The Hollywood Songbooks", and the oratorio-like "Deutsche Sinfonie", and his last work the opera from 1952 "Johann Faustus". This last work was like the summary opus a deeply felt commentary on the state of the world after the war, and the opportunism that existed in the East with the Soviet satellites.Here we are provided with the libretto and Eisler's own notes on this work. Eisler when he returned to the DDR , East Germany he was largely ignored by the DDR government hardly mounting performances of his works.

There are also heretofore unavailable a translated interview with Hans Bunge where we now see Eisler past his career where he reflects on the politicalization of the arts,the situation in the East and when asked where music and politics renders itself,that all art is political the answer was that it is rather useless to politicize everything.It is rather the artist challenge to find the thread to jump over the border to find where this paradigm exists between politics and music.There is also a wonderful narrative on when Eisler brough Brecht to Schoenberg's home while they all lived in Los Angeles. Eisler had though Brecht would insult Schoenberg.

There are also nice vintage phots and ample musical excerpts from score and manuscript. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1510 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hanns Eisler: A Miscellany.
Author: David Farneth
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1997
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v53Issue: n4Page: p1168(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
Eisler's role in German music is similar to that of Brecht in German literature and the two men worked together for nearly thirty years. Together with Webern and Berg, Eisler is considered one of the three great pupils of Schoenberg. Albrecht Betz divides Eisler's life and music into four periods. The early formative period as student of Schoenberg includes compositions written in Vienna up to 1925. From 1926 to 1933, the second period, Eisler lived in Berlin and made his greatest impact with his political vocal music. The third phase of Eisler's life, fifteen years of exile, was spent principally in the USA, and the fourth (from 1948) in East Germany. The author shows how Eisler is distinguished from other great twentieth-century composers in his belief that music had a social function, and how he liberated modern music from what he and others felt was its isolation. Originally published in German in 1976, this English edition is illustrated with music examples and includes a complete list of works, and a bibliography which has been adapted for the English-speaking reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Books is overpriced and inaccurate
You would expect that for a book that cost as much as this one you would get an accurate history of Hanns Eisler, his life, his family, and his troubles with his family, but that is not the case.The book spends too much time mitigating Hanns and his brother Gerhardt controversial ties with the Communist party while marginalizing his sister, Ruth Fischer, their chief accuser. Sorry to say that this books, although interesting, is afraid to go beyond the surface and is a whitewash of this controversial, but brilliant musician.By the time you finish it, you will would think that his sister was crazy and that Hanns and his brother were just plain ordinary folks hounded out of America by that mean old committee and Richard Nixon.Go ahead and read it.Read his much marginalized, but brilliant sister's book too.By the time, you are finished both, youjust might break out into a chorus of Night and Day instead of the Eisler composition, The Comintern March.Eisler's life, relationship with his familyand politics were much more interesting and complicated than you will find in the pages of this overpriced whitewash.I doubt, however, a true account of the man will ever see the light of day.

comprehensive,analytic history of a 20th Century master
Although written in the mid-Eighties this is still an exhaustive,detailed account of a Twentieth Century master,the first in English. Eisler was a Marxist and wrote music as well, two ultimately unique facets of a creatortoday. No one forsaw the emergence of culture as a last bastion of internalresistence to the state of the world. This is why Betz's book here is soimportant, for it gives both the analytic and the historical. Betz tracesEisler's entire career. Beginning with the early days as a Schoenbergstudent.Eisler to my mind anyway had more of a realist vision of thestate of Germany,than his counterparts Weill,Berg or Webern in theTwenties,which is why he adopted his political convictions. His early musicadopts a Schoenbergian free atonality but he finds his own voice there.Compelling, neurotic and momentum bound are the main features of this earlymusic,He wrote a powerful "First Piano Sonata" from this periodand began dabbling in music as social discourse He utilized newspaperclippings, or "Zeitungsausschnitte" the title of the work forpiano and voice. Betz extends his analysis to Eisler's meeting in Berlinwith Brecht, one of the most prolific and profound collaboration of thiscentury. Betz develops a concept of Eisler's modernity and the uniquecreative challenges he faced in uniting text with music. Eisler, who wroteover 500 songs during his life was like the Schubert of our age,almost notext was beyond a run through with piano accompaniment. The thrust of thismodernity was Eisler's penchant for a striking image, a compact,terselyrical musical means. Often his songs are quite short which points to thismodernity in fast development and quick,concentrated musical motives, wheresingle exposed tones can trigger an image of violence or terror. There isalso here an elaborate discussion of Eisler's last major work the opera"Johann Faustus". When Eisler was thrown out of the United Stateshe returned to the DDR, East Germany, and was wholly ignored by theapparatcik authorities,despite the fact that he wrote their NationalAnthem. This opera was reason enough for this institutional neglect, withveiled barbs on the seductive sides of tyranny. He used the "PeasantWars" in Germany in the early 1500's as a remote yet very immediatereality for this opera. Betz also includes a comprehensive list of all ofEisler's works including reference to numerous filmscores. ... Read more

Book Description
Cet ouvrage est un recueil de travaux dont certains ont deja ete publies dans diverses revues, mais dont la majeure partie est inedite. Ces etudes constituent l'essentiel d'un ouvrage laisse inacheve par l'auteur.

Il s'agit, d'une part, de suivre le parcours qui a conduit un compositeur d'origine bourgeoise, forme par Schoenberg (en meme temps que Berg et Webern) aux techniques de composition d'avant-garde, a s'engager aux cotes de la classe ouvriere et, delaissant la musique de salon, a composer une "musique de combat". Mais au-dela du parcours individuel, il s'agit d'autre part pour l'auteur de retracer l'histoire de ce qu'il appelle, a la suite d'Adorno, le "materiau musical" et de montrer que le XXe siecle, epoque de l'oeuvre d'art devenue techniquement reproductible (Benjamin), est aussi celui d'une usure du materiau musical. Refusant une renovation de ce materiau qui, a l'image de celle entreprise par Schoenberg, resterait confinee dans les cercles restreints d'une elite tant musicale que sociale, Eisler aurait compris que la reaction contre l'usure du materiau ne pouvait venir que du retablissement du lien entre la musique et la realite sociale.

Nouant ainsi le contact avec les masses, Eisler a ecrit pour elles non pas une musique au rabais, mais au contraire une musique dont l'auteur analyse ici en detail la haute technicite. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Hanns Eisler, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 343 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Cineaste, published by Cineaste Publishers, Inc. on September 22, 1998. The length of the article is 614 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Solidarity Song: The Hanns Eisler Story.(Review)
Author: Lenny Rubenstein
Publication: Cineaste (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 1998
Publisher: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Volume: 23Issue: 4Page: 53(1)

Article Type: Movie Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1995. The length of the article is 1877 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Die Debatte um Hanns Eislers "Johann Faustus": Eine Dokumentation.
Author: David Blake
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1995
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v51Issue: n4Page: p1286(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
In dem Buch geht es um den Zusammenhang von musikalischem und literarischem Exil und um die Wirkung des Exils auf Hanns Eislers dodekaphone Kantaten von 1937. Die interdisziplinär vorgehende Interpretation der Werke zeigt die subtile Wechselwirkung zwischen Eislers Kantaten und Brechts "Deutschen Satiren" sowie dessen Schrift "Über gestische Musik." Aus der musikalischen Analyse ergeben sich nicht zuletzt neue musikästhetische und gattungsspezifische Erkenntnisse. Auch das paradoxe Verhältnis zwischen künstlerischer Absicht und der Wirkung des Werkes wird nach der reihentechnischen Analyse deutlich. ... Read more

Book Description
This classic account of the nature of film music aesthetics was first published in 1947. Its value comes from a unique combination of talents and experience enjoyed by the book's authors. Eisler's time at Hollywood gave him a particular insight on the technical questions which arise for composers when music is used in the production of films; while Adorno was able to contribute on wide aesthetic and sociological matters as well as specifically musical questions. Above all, the authors envisaged the book as a contribution to the study of modern, industrialised culture; and, in this respect, it has a particular importance to the whole area of cultural studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Belongs on every film music scholar's shelf
After so many years sitting on library shelves in obscurity, it's nice to see that Continuum finally saw fit to release this title again. It's rather telling how Eisler's stature has weathered seeing as the first edition said only "Eisler" on the spine, while this version says "Adorno and Eisler."

There's nothing very different about this reprint, other than its availability at a reasonable price. Graham McCann provides a nice historical introduction, although he feels the need to give some throw-away biographical info on both Adorno and Eisler before getting onto the history of the book itself.

Sadly, this book has not had the desired effect on film music that the authors intended as its message is as applicable today as ever. While I've read at least parts of many of the available film music books around, this one is special because it presents no compromises with regard to the role of music in film, and in Adorno's elegant theoretical language.

Anyone interested in film music should own this. For those Adorno fans who may or may not be interested in film music, there is plenty here as well. For one thing, this is a great example of Adorno meeting the culture industry head-on in an extended format. This is essential reading.

Adorno/Eisler
This is a great book.While it was written over 60 years ago, it is still very applicable to today.It's worth the investment. ... Read more