Hanns Eisler Political Musician [Hardcover]

Albrecht Betz divides Eisler's life and music into four periods in this English edition of a work originally published in German in 1976.Eisler was distinguished from other Twentieth Century composers in his belief that music had a social function. He and his friends Brecht, Piscator and Grosz launched a new political art in response to social changes caused by WWI, the October Revolution, Schoenberg's revolutionary atonality and dodecaphony, and the impact of the new mass media. Includes music examples, complete list of works and a bibliography adapted for the English-speaking reader.Eisler was distinguished from other Twentieth Century composers in his belief that music had a social function. He and his friends Brecht, Piscator and Grosz launched a new political art in response to social changes caused by WWI, the October Revolution, Schoenberg's revolutionary atonality and dodecaphony, and the impact of the new mass media. Includes music examples, complete list of works and a bibliography adapted for the English-speaking reader.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 illustral³0