Albrecht Betz: Hanns Eisler, Political Musician (1976/1982)
Filed under book | Tags: · agitprop, biography, composing, fascism, germany, music, music history, politics, proletariat
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 illustrated with music examples and includes a complete list of works, and a bibliography which has been adapted for the English-speaking reader.
Originally published in German as Hanns Eisler, Musik einer Zeit, die sich eben bildet by Edition text und kritik GmbH, Munich 1976
Translated by Bill Hopkins
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1982
ISBN 0521240220, 9780521240222
326 pages
Georg Lukács: History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (1923/1972)
Filed under book | Tags: · bourgeoisie, capitalism, communism, dialectic, economy, historical materialism, history, marxism, philosophy, political economy, political theory, proletariat, social democracy
Written between 1919 and 1922 and first published in 1923, History and Class Consciousness initiated the current of thought that came to be known as Western Marxism. The book is notable for contributing to debates concerning Marxism and its relation to sociology, politics and philosophy, and for reconstructing many elements of Marx’s theory of alienation before most of the works of the Young Marx, in which it is expounded, had been published. Lukács’s work elaborates and expands upon Marxist theories such as ideology, false consciousness, reification and class consciousness.
Originally published as Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein, 1923.
First published in this edition by Merlin Press, London, 1971
Publisher MIT Press, 1972
ISBN 0262620200, 9780262620208
404 pages
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