Brecht, Music and Culture

Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer. A Schoenberg pupil and committed Marxist, he was one of the great distinctive musical personalities of the twentieth century.Hans Bunge was assistant director and dramaturg at the Berliner Ensemble in Germany in the 1950s and later became first director of the Brecht Archive. He published his conversations with Eisler in Germany under the title Gespräche mit Hans Bunge – Fragen Sie mehr über Brecht.Sabine Berendse, the daughter of the late Hans Bunge, is a Librarian and Information Specialist in Berlin, Germany. Paul Clements was Principal of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, UK, for twelve years until his retirement in July 2008. He has taught, acted and directed in the UK, Canada and Scandinavia.

Th[is] edition is a labour of love. ... Together with Paul Clements, [Berendse] has crafted not only a readable but a highly engaging rendition of a series of conversations whose length makes them suitable for a sustained read or a more relaxed series of perusals ... [This] edition offers rich anecdotal accounts of Brecht, the German Democratic Republic, and disquisitions on the relationship between politics and music.

• Notes to the German edition by Hans BungeTranslator’s noteConversation 114 Ways of Describing Rain – Meetings between Brecht and Arnold Schoenberg, Charlie Chaplin and Thomas Mann – Brecht and MusicConversation 2Galileo – Hollywood Elegies – Brecht and Feuchtwanger – Brecht and Music for the Theatre – Schweyk in the Second World WarConversation 3Brecht on Arnold Schoenberg – Gestic Music – The Caucasian Chalk Circle – Döblin’s 65th Birthday PartyConversation 4Music for The Private Life of the Master Race – Prologue to Galileo – Eisler and the House Committee on Un-American Activities – The Mother in New York – Brecht and Stefan Zweig – BajazzoConversation 5Brecht’s Hexameters for the Communist Manifesto – Was Brecht a Marxist? – Brecht’s Method of VerfremdungConversation 6‘To Those Born Later’ – Boogie-Woogie – Eisler on Religion – GalileoConversation 7‘Hotel Room 1942’ – HölderlinConversation 8On Stupidity in Music I – HölderlinConversation 9Hans Mayer’s book on Brecht – Brecht and Georg LukácsConversation 10The Music to Schweyk in the Second World War – On Stupidity in Music IIConversation 11Hölderlin Poems – On Stupidity in Music IIIConversation 12Eisler on Classical Literature, on the Function of Art, on Cybernetics and on NapoleonConversation 13Serious Songs – Eisler’s Plans for a SymphonyConversation 14Eisler and Bunge Compare Their Experiences as SoldiersAfterword: For the First Edition of the ‘Conversations’ by Stephan HermlinNotesAppendixIndex