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Hanns Eisler and His Hollywood Songbook: A Survey of the Five Elegies and the Hoelderlin Fragments

Workman, Stanley Edward, Jr.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275408163

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Musical Arts, Ohio State University, Music.
Hanns Eisler, (1898-1962), remains today as one of the most fascinating and controversial composers of the Twentieth-Century. Schooled in the aesthetic style of the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Eisler made an ideological shift in the trajectory of his musical career in the mid-1920’s, shifting the emphasis away from ‘art music’ to music for the Worker’s Movement. Enormously versatile, Eisler then found himself working in various genres, from the writing of ‘agitprop’ style ballads and choruses, the Lehrstücke collaborations with friend and colleague Bertolt Brecht, and to the composing of film scores for many documentary and Leftist film producers. When the Worker’s Movement was disbanded with the oncoming of Hitler in 1933, Eisler, now an exile, once again returned to more conventional musical forms such as the Symphony and the Art Song. It is during this exile period in both Europe and the U.S.A. that Eisler composed some of his greatest works, such as the Deutsche Sinfonie, the chamber work Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain, and the Hollywood Songbook (Das Hollywooder Liederbuch), to name just a few. Eisler’s prolific Hollywood film score career was interrupted by the infamous 1947 HUAC hearings, which resulted in deportation. Eventually Eisler settled in the GDR where he composed and taught, but would find some of his compositional aspirations, such as the writing of a new opera, brutally attacked by criticisms of musical elitism. Probably no other composer has suffered more from the effects of the Cold War globally as has Hanns Eisler. Only in the last twenty years have serious efforts been undertaken to reevaluate his work through critical analysis, performance, and discussion. The goal of this document is to introduce Hanns Eisler and his music, presenting him as one of the great continuers of the genre of the Lied in the twentieth-century. This document begins with a brief biography of Hanns Eisler, and moves to a discussion of the Hollywood Songbook, briefly touching on various songs, then moving to a musical examination of two (of three) closed cycles within the collection: the Five Elegies and the Hölderlin Fragments. Included within are appendices listing works for voice and piano, and a selected Hanns Eisler Vocal Discography.
Dr. John Robin Rice, D.M.A. (Advisor)
Professor Loretta Robinson, M.M. (Committee Member)
Dr. Charles Patrick Woliver, D.M.A. (Committee Member)
94 p.
Music
Eisler; Hollywood Songbook; Hoelderlin, Brecht; , 20th-century art song;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Workman, Jr., S. E. (2010). Hanns Eisler and His Hollywood Songbook: A Survey of the Five Elegies and the Hoelderlin Fragments [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275408163

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Workman, Jr., Stanley. Hanns Eisler and His Hollywood Songbook: A Survey of the Five Elegies and the Hoelderlin Fragments. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275408163.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Workman, Jr., Stanley. "Hanns Eisler and His Hollywood Songbook: A Survey of the Five Elegies and the Hoelderlin Fragments." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275408163

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.