Hanns Eisler (July 6, 1898 - September 6, 1962) was a German and Austrian composer. July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the day of the year. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy. In 1901 the family moved to Vienna. During World War I Eisler served as a front-line soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army and was wounded several times in combat. Returning to Vienna after Austria's defeat, he studied from 1919 to 1923 under Arnold Schoenberg. Eisler was the first of Schoenberg's disciples to compose in the twelve-tone or serial technique. [] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Vienna (German: Wien ; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Beč, Czech: Vídeň, Hungarian: Bécs, Romanian: Viena, Romani: Bech or Vidnya, Russian: Вена, Slovak: Viedeň, Slovenian: Dunaj) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total dead: 7 million The First World War, also known as... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 Schoenberg redirects here. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... Serialism is a technique for composing music so that each tone of a row sounds before any tone repeats. ...

In 1925 Eisler moved to Berlin—then a hothouse of experimentation in music, theater, film, art and politics. There, he identified closely with the Communist Party of Germany although he never joined. His music became increasingly oriented towards political themes and, to Schoenberg's dismay, more "popular" in style with influences drawn from jazz and cabaret. At the same time, he drew closer to Bertolt Brecht, whose own turn towards Marxism happened at about the same time. The collaboration between the two artists lasted for the rest of Brecht's life. Eisler wrote the music for several Brecht plays, including The Measures Taken (1930), The Mother (1931) and Schweik in the Second World War (1944). They also collaborated on protest songs which played a role in the political turmoil of Weimar Germany in the early 1930s. Their Solidarity Song became a popular militant anthem sung in street protests and public meetings throughout Europe, and their Ballad of Paragraph 218 was the world's first song protesting laws against abortion. Brecht-Eisler songs of this period tended to look at life from "below"—from the perspective of prostitutes, hustlers, the unemployed and the working poor. This article is about Germanys largest city. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Bertolt Brecht. ... Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... Fritz Muliar as Schwejk (1972) The Good Soldier Švejk (spelled Schweik or Schwejk in many translations, and pronounced /ʃvɛjk/) is the shortened title of the world-famous unfinished novel written by Czech humorist Jaroslav Hašek in 1921-22. ... Flag of Germany, 1919–1933 The Weimar Republic (German Weimarer Republik, IPA: []) is the historical name for the republic that governed Germany from 1919 to 1933. ...

After 1933, Eisler's music and Brecht's poetry were banned by the Nazi Party. Both artists joined the generation of anti-Nazi exiles who sought refuge in the United States. In New York City, Eisler taught composition at the New School and wrote experimental chamber and documentary music. Moving shortly before World War II to Los Angeles, he composed several Hollywood film scores, two of which—Hangmen Also Die and None but the Lonely Heart—were nominated for Oscars. In 1947 he wrote the book Composing for the Films with Theodor Adorno. But in several chamber and choral compositions of this period, Eisler also returned to the twelve-tone method he had abandoned in Berlin. His Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain—composed for Arnold Schoenberg's 70th birthday celebration—is considered a masterpiece of the genre. The Nazi swastika symbol The National Socialist German Workers Party ( German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. ... The New School is an institution of higher learning in New York City. ... Hangmen Also Die was a 1943 film directed by the legendary German director Fritz Lang with a script by Bertolt Brecht and John Wexley. ... None but the Lonely Heart is a 1944 film which tells the story of a Cockney lad who returns home with no ambitions, but finds that his family needs him. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ...

Eisler's two most notable works of the 1930s and 40s were the monumental Deutsche Sinfonie (1935-57)—a choral symphony in eleven movements based on poems by Brecht and Ignazio Silone—and a cycle of art songs published as the Hollywood Songbook (1938-43). With lyrics by Brecht, Morike, Hölderlin and Goethe, it established Eisler's reputation as one of the 20th century's great composers of German lieder. Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (March 20, 1770 – June 6, 1843) was a major German lyric poet. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Lied (plural Lieder) is a German word, literally meaning song; among English speakers, however, it is used primarily as a term for European classical music songs, also known as art songs. Typically, Lieder are arranged for a single singer and piano. ...

Grave of Hans Eisler

Eisler's promising career in the U.S. was interrupted by the Cold War. He was one of the first artists placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In two interrogations by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the composer was accused of being "the Karl Marx of music" and the chief Soviet agent in Hollywood. Eisler's supporters—including his friend Charlie Chaplin and the composers Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein—organized benefit concerts to raise money for his defense fund, but he was deported early in 1948. The unrecorded Woodie Guthrie song 'Eisler on the Go' - later adapted by Billy Bragg & Wilco on the Mermaid Avenue album - is a protest about this action. Image File history File links Eislergrave. ... Image File history File links Eislergrave. ... The Cold War was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their military alliance partners. ... Playwright Arthur Miller testifies before HUAC The Hollywood blacklist was a group of primarily Jewish film actors, directors, and screenwriters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including at least ten who were members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), who were investigated by the House Committee on Un-American... A movie studio is a controlled environment for the making of a film. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) (1938-1975) was an investigating committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... Chaplin in his costume as The Tramp Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, KBE, (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977), better known as Charlie Chaplin, was a British comedy actor, becoming the most famous actor in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and also a notable director. ... Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский Igor Fjodorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-born composer of modern classical music. ... Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. ... Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, pianist and conductor. ... Stephen William Bragg (born December 20, 1957), known as Billy Bragg, is a British musician known for his blend of folk, punk-rock, and protest music, and his poetic lyrics dealing with political as well as romantic themes. ...

Eisler returned to Germany and settled in East Berlin. There, he composed the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic, a cycle of cabaret-style songs to satirical poems by Kurt Tucholsky, and incidental music for theater, films and television. His most ambitious project of the period, a modern opera on the Faust theme, was attacked by Communist censors and never completed. Ironically, less than five years after his deportation from the United States, Eisler was again forced to testify in hearings where his political loyalty was questioned. Although he continued to work as a composer and to teach at the East Berlin conservatory, the gap between Eisler and the cultural functionaries of East Germany grew wider in the last decade of his life. Eisler never recovered completely from Brecht's death in 1956 and his remaining years were marred by depression and declining health. He died in East Berlin and is buried near Brecht in the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery. East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... Auferstanden aus Ruinen (Risen from the Ruins) was the national anthem of East Germany (German Democratic Republic, German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR). ... This article is about the historical state. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (Berlin, January 9, 1890 – December 21, 1935 in Gothenburg) was a German journalist, satirist and writer. ... Faust (Latin Faustus) is the protagonist of a popular German tale of a pact with the Devil, assumed to be based on the figure of the German magician and alchemist Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480–1540). ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler (College of Music Hanns Eisler) is one of the leading music conservatories in Germany. ...

External links

• The International Hanns Eisler Society
• EislerMusic.com