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Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" is named after him. Family background Johannes Eisler was born in Leipzig in Saxony, the son of Rudolf Eisler, a professor of philosophy, and Marie Ida Fischer. His father was an atheist of Jewish origin and his mother was Lutheran. In 1901, the family moved to Vienna. His brother, Gerhart, was a Communist journalist, and his sister, Elfriede, was a leader of the German Communist Party in the mid-1920s. After emigrating to America, she turned into an anti-Stalinist, writing books against her former political affiliation, and even testifying against her brothers before the House Un-American Activities Committee. At age 14 Eis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schweik In The Second World War
''Schweyk in the Second World War'' (''Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg'') is a play by German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht. It was written by Brecht in 1943 while in exile in California, and is a sequel to the 1923 novel ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' by Jaroslav Hašek. Background ''Schweyk in the Second World War'' is set in Nazi-occupied Prague and on the Russian Front during World War II. In a summary written for potential composer Kurt Weill, it was written: "The Good Soldier Schweyk, after surviving the First World War, is still alive. Our story shows his successful efforts to survive the Second as well. The new rulers have even more grandiose and all-embracing plans than the old, which makes it even harder for today's Little Man to remain more or less alive." Hanns Eisler, ultimately, became Brecht's chief musical collaborator for the work. Plot As Schweyk is forced into war, he manages to survive while overcoming dangerous situations in Gestapo Headquarters, a militar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after its defeat in the First World War. Austria-Hungary was ruled by the House of Habsburg and constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of the Habsburg monarchy. It was a multinational state and one of Europe's major powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire). The Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry in the world, after the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. Austria-Hungary also became the world's third-largest manufacturer and exporter of electric home appliances, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mother (Brecht Play)
''The Mother'' is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It is based on Maxim Gorky's 1906 novel of the same name. Background It was written in collaboration with Hanns Eisler, Slatan Dudow and Günther Weisenborn in 1930–31 in prose dialogue with unrhymed irregular free verse and ten initial songs in its score, with three more added later. Eisler rewrote the incidental music as a cantata, op. 25, for chorus, solo voices and two pianos for a 1935 New York stage production. The play's full German title is ' (The mother. Life of the Revolutionary Pelagea Vlassova from Tver). Performance History It premièred on 17 January 1932 at the (near Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, but not the same) in Berlin. It was directed by Emil Burri and the scenic design was by Caspar Neher. Helene Weigel played the Mother and Ernst Busch played Pavel. Years later, Brecht directed the play with the Berliner Ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in a production that opened on 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Decision (play)
''The Decision'' ('), frequently translated as ''The Measures Taken'', is a '' Lehrstück'' and agitprop cantata by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. Created in collaboration with composer Hanns Eisler and director Slatan Dudow, it consists of eight sections in prose and unrhymed, free verse, with six major songs. A note to the text by all three collaborators describes it as an "attempt to use a didactic piece to make familiar an attitude of positive intervention."Willett (1959, 38–39). Plot Four agitators from Moscow return from a successful mission in China and are congratulated for their efforts by a central committee (called The Control Chorus.) The four agitators, however, inform the committee that during their mission they were forced to kill a young comrade for their mission to succeed. They ask for judgment from the committee on their actions. The committee withholds its verdict until after the four agitators re-enact the events that led to the young ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand Social class, class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, no single, definitive Marxist philosophy, Marxist theory exists. In addition to the schools of thought which emphasize or modify elements of classical Marxism, various Marxian concepts have been incorporated and adapted into a diverse array of Social theory, social theories leading to widely varying conclusions. Alongside Marx's critique of political economy, the defining characteristics of Marxism have often been described using the terms dialectical mater ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as done by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often (but not always) oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature. In the United States, striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are often advertised as cabarets. Etymology The term originally came from Picard language or Walloon language words ''camberete'' or ''cambret'' for a small room (12th century). The first printed use of the word ''kaberet'' is found in a document from 1275 in Tournai. The term was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Eisler
Georg Eisler (20 April 1928, Vienna – 15 January 1998, Vienna) was an Austrian painter from the school of Oskar Kokoschka. His father Hanns Eisler was a composer and his mother Charlotte Eisler, née Demant a well-known singer and music teacher. His subject matter themes have included landscapes (often industrial featuring the north of England where he had lived after evacuating from Austria in 1936), group or crowd scenes (including jazz clubs and public transport) as well as nudes and still lifes. He returned to Vienna in 1946 where he died in 1998. Eisler lectured at various universities including the Berlin University of the Arts (Udk), HFBK Hamburg, Stanford University, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Southern California. Life Out of political reasons, his mother left Austria in 1936 and lived in with Georg for two years in Moscow. They then went to Prague and in 1939 to England, after the Nazi invasion of Austria. In Manchester, Georg attended Manc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
November Group (German)
The November Group (german: Novembergruppe) was a group of German expressionist artists and architects. Formed on 3 December 1918, they took their name from the month of the German Revolution. The group was led by Max Pechstein and César Klein. Linked less by their styles of art than by shared socialist values, the group campaigned for radical artists to have a greater say in such issues as the organisation of art schools, and new laws around the arts. The group merged in December 1918 with ''Arbeitsrat für Kunst'' (Workers Council of the arts – or 'The Art Soviet'). Weimar Republic The artists of the November group described themselves as radical and revolutionary. Their work, like that of the similar ''Arbeitsrat für Kunst'', aimed to support a socialist revolution in Germany. A key objective of the group was the union of art and the people. Furthermore, the group tried to influence public and cultural aspects of society. In 1921, artists from the left wing of the Novembe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communist Party Of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War by socialists who had opposed the war, the party joined the Spartacist uprising of January 1919, which sought to establish a soviet republic in Germany. After the defeat of the uprising, and the murder of KPD leaders Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogiches, the party temporarily steered a more moderate, parliamentarian course under the leadership of Paul Levi. During the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the national and in state parliaments. Under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann from 1925 the party became thoroughly S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlotte Demant
Charlotte Eisler (2 August 1894 - 21 August 1970) was an Austrian singer, pianist and music teacher associated with the Second Viennese School. Born Charlotte Demant in Ternopil (now in Ukraine), her family moved to Chernivtsi where she attended school. Early in the First World War, they moved to Vienna. There Charlotte studied music. Her teachers included Anton Webern and Eduard Steuermann. As a student she met composers Arnold Schönberg and Hanns Eisler. She married Eisler in 1920, they separated in 1934. Artist Georg Eisler was their only child. Active in left-wing politics, Eisler was obliged to leave Vienna in 1934 for Bratislava. In 1936 she travelled to Moscow. Travelling back to Vienna in 1938, she learned in Prague of the invasion by Nazi Germany and subsequent Anschluss. As a result, she travelled on to England with her son and remained there during the Second World War, finally returning to Vienna in 1946. From 1947 until 1952 she taught song at the Konservatorium Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
