Hanns Eisler: A Rebel in Music: Selected Writings

This is a reprint of the collection of Eisler's writings in English, first published in 1978. For Eisler the written word was very important and people paid tribute to his mind, quickness of thought, wit and breadth of cultural knowledge.

Table of Contents:
Preface by David Blake, Introduction by Manfred Grabs, Editor's Note, 32 Essays by Hanns Eisler: 1. On Old and New Music, 2. Satirical Aphorisms, 3. On the Situation in Modern Music, 4. Progress in the Workers' Music Movement, 5. The Builders of a New Music Culture, 6. Our Revolutionary Music, 7. Blast-Furnace Music, 8. Music for Workers' Orchestras, 9. Address to a Solidarity Concert, 10. Letter to Ernst Hermann Meyer, 11. On Schoenberg, 12. The Birth of the Worker's Song, 13. A Musical Journey through America, 14. Problems of Working-Class Music, 15. Hollywood Seen from the Left, 16. Some Remarks on the Situation of the Modern Composer, 17. The Crisis in Music, 18. From My Practical Work, 19. Letter to Bertolt Brecht, 20. On a Concert for the International Brigade in Spain, 21. Labor, Labor Movement and Music, 22. Fantasia in G-men, 23. Basic Social Questions of Modern Music, 24. Thoughts on the Anniversary of Beethoven's Death, 25. Bertolt Brecht and Music, 26. On Good Listening, 27. Song Born to Struggle, 28. I Once Knew a Headwaiter, 29. On Stupidity in Music, 30. America's War of Independence - Indirect Aggression, 31. Schweik and German Militarism, 32. Thoughts on Form and Content, Chronology

About the Author :
Hanns Eisler was born in Leipzig in 1898, the son of the Austrian philosopher Rudolph Eisler, and grew up in Vienna. He received instruction in composition from Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and developed his own style breaking with the restrictions of traditional music genres. Composing for films, he formed a life-long collaboration with Bertolt Brecht. After stays in Paris, London, Moscow, Prague, Eisler lived in New York, where he taught at the New School for Social Research. In Hollywood, Eisler continued his collaboration and in 1948, when he was expelled from the United States under the HUAC investigations, he was honoured at a farewell concert by prominent American colleagues including Bernstein and Copland. Eisler moved back to Germany and settled in East Berlin where he died in East Berlin in1962. Professor David Blake was a founder member of the Department of Music at the University of York and studied composition under Hanns Eisler.

Review :
This is a valuable collection of Eisler's articles, speeches and lectures on the state of music and the role of the musician in society, ..... there is a lot of thought-provoking material and it is one of the very few affordable English-language titles.