“Music, like every other art has to fulfil a certain purpose in society,” German composer Hanns Eisler wrote in 1932. “It is used by bourgeois society mainly as recreation, for the reproduction (re-creation) of labour power, to lull people and to blunt their intellect. The workers’ music movement must be clear about the new function of their music, which is to activate their members for struggle and to encourage political education. This means that all music forms and techniques must be developed to suit the express purpose, that is the class struggle.”

In the first half of the 20th century, Eisler was among the few musicians to not only theorise what revolutionary music could be, but to also realise his ideas in practice. Although he had been a student of serialist pioneer Arnold Schoenberg between 1919–23, several of the “fighting songs” Eisler composed, notably to texts by Bertolt Brecht, acquired mass diffusion and became classics of the communist movement. Eisler died in East Germany in 1962, aged 64. The generally accepted outlines of his biography – serving in the First World War, exile after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship, targeting by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the US, and varying fortunes in the newly established German Democratic Republic, for which he composed the national anthem — have often been summarised, for instance in an article entitled “The Karl Marx Of Music”, published by the American left journal Jacobin.

In the 1970s, after major turning points for the world communist movement and its Soviet domination as well as the emergence of new currents on the left, a generation of musicians looking into creating politically relevant works became interested in Eisler. They included composers such as Cornelius Cardew, Frederic Rzewski, Christian Wolff, Louis Andriessen, all coming, like Eisler, from the contemporary classical world, but also musicians associated with avant garde jazz.

Bassist Charlie Haden featured a version of Eisler’s “Einheitsfrontlied” arranged by Carla Bley on his 1969 Liberation Music Orchestra LP. A number of leading European free jazz players also demonstrated their interest in Eisler on record: Peter Brötzmann with Fred Van Hove and Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, and François Tusques. In jazz and contemporary classical – as well as other contexts not covered here – Eisler’s songs proved to be highly usable material, music malleable enough to function outside of literal renderings.

The following selection also includes early recordings dating from the 78 rpm shellac era, often restored by the Bear Family label. The opening version of “Einheitsfrontlied” was recorded, in four languages, by German singer Ernst Busch in Spain during the Civil War. “In Praise Of Learning” dates from a trip Eisler took to the US in 1935. It was released by the short-lived Timely Recording Co in a graphically striking series described by party press as “the first American phonograph discs to bear working class and revolutionary songs to the masses”. Other historical recordings included here were issued by labels affiliated with the French and German Communist Parties, Le Chant Du Monde and Arbeiter-Kult.

Paul Robeson sings an Eisler arrangement of the concentration camp song “Die Moorsoldaten” (“The Peat Bog Soldiers”). In Hanns Eisler Political Musician, biographer Albrecht Betz described stylistic elements of the composer’s fighting songs: “Unexpected syncopations are set off against the ‘walking crotchets’ in the bass of the accompaniment. This feature adds a special elasticity and a bracing springiness to the works’ aggressive energy,” Betz wrote in what’s still the only book-length biography of Eisler in English. “From the early German songs of the 16th and 17th centuries Eisler took over an asymmetrical manner of constructing his melodies (eg “Solidaritätslied”) and changes of metre […]. He used modal elements at least as much as in his choruses. And from the Russian revolutionary funeral march he frequently borrowed the alternation of major and minor between verse and refrain. The precisely planned juxtaposition of small contrasting units enabled him to give tangible form to the text’s various lines of force.”

Eisler was prolific and wrote in many genres. His work outside of his classical output also included ballads, used as vehicles for social commentary. Of course, not all of his militant songs found equal fortune. One of his most successful was “Komintern”. Its first version was composed in 1929, for the tenth anniversary of the Communist International (Comintern), the association of national communist parties under Soviet control. “Komintern” circulated widely from 1931 onward, with translations into Russian, Polish, French, English, Spanish, and more.

The composer’s long-lasting collaboration with Bertolt Brecht produced the marches he himself considered the most successful. “The most enduring songs of this genre to my way of thinking are the “United Front Song” and “Solidarity Song”, which were never surpassed – neither by me nor by Brecht, nor anyone else,” Eisler said. “You can only write something like this when you come across a wholly certain, concrete social situation and this was just a lucky coming together — that’s all I can say.” The “Solidarity Song” (“Solidaritätslied”) was written in 1931 for Kuhle Wampe Or Who Owns The World?, a 1932 film directed by Slatan Dudow and starring Ernst Busch, who would remain widely considered as the prime interpreter of Eisler’s material. Composed in 1934, after the Nazi Party had assumed control of Germany, the “United Front Song” (“Einheitsfrontlied”) followed Comintern directives for joint action against fascism with forces outside of the communist parties.

In the 1970s, an extensive project to compile an edition of Eisler’s complete works was launched in the GDR. More than three dozens LPs were released by the Nova label. A large part of the recordings later available on CD, on Berlin Classics and then in a Brilliant Classics box set, can be traced back to the East German edition. Some of them, parts of tracks opening on other facets of Eisler’s work, are included here.

Among the voluminous amount of music not sampled here is Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”, perhaps the most famous political contemporary classical piece of the later 20th century and whose 26th variation incorporates the “Solidaritätslied”. In free music, the Heiner Goebbels/Alfred Harth duo made particularly extensive use of Eisler material, often as fragments inside improvisations. Many more versions of Eisler’s songs have been recorded. No exhaustive discography exists, but chances are one would put to the test what Eisler wrote in 1935: “In fact, music not only serves certain social functions, but allows of a change in these functions, so that it is then made to serve an aim different than that for which it was written.”

Many of the artists mentioned here have been the subjects of Wire features – search the online library for more details. More Eisler can be heard in an episode of The Wire’s Resonance FM show, Adventures In Sound And Music: New Year’s Eve Special presented by Chris Bohn.

Playlist

Ernst Busch
“Lied Der Einheitsfront” [“Einheitsfrontlied”]
From Six Songs For Democracy: Discos De Las Brigadas Internacionales/Spain In My Heart: Songs Of The Spanish Civil War
(Keynote/Bear Family)

New Singers
“In Praise Of Learning”
From In Praise Of Learning/Rise Up/Songs For Political Action: Folkmusic, Topical Songs And The American Left, 1926–1953
(Timely/Bear Family)

Chorale Populaire De Paris conducted by Roger Désormière
“L’Appel Du Comintern” [“Komintern”]
From Le Drapeau Rouge/L’appel Du Comintern
(Le Chant du monde)

Cornelius Cardew
“Thälmann Variations” [excerpt] [“Der Heimliche Aufmarsch”]
From Piano Music
(B & L)

Ernst Busch
“The Mexican Cotton Pickers Song” [“Solidaritätslied”]
From Alabama (Oh Susanna!)/The Mexican Cotton Pickers Song
(Грампласттрест)

Paul Robeson
“The Peat Bog Soldiers” [“Die Moorsoldaten”]
From Songs Of Free Men
(Columbia Masterworks / Sony Classical)

Charlie Haden
“Song Of The United Front” [“Einheitsfrontlied”]
From Liberation Music Orchestra
(Impulse!)

Eric Bentley
“Das Lied Vom Trockenbrot”
From Songs Of Hanns Eisler
(Folkways)

Der Rote Wedding
“Der Rote Wedding (Truppenlied)”
From Dass Nichts Bleibt, Wie Es War!: 150 Jahre Arbeiter – Und Freiheitslieder, Vol 3, 1928–1945
(Arbeiter-Kult/Bear Family)

Orkest De Volharding
“Solidaritätslied”
From De Volharding
(De Volharding)

Collegium Musicum Leipzig conducted by Adolf Fritz Guhl
“Andante Eroico” from Suite No 5 [“Komintern”]
From Deutsche Sinfonie, Suite Nr 5 »Dans Les Rues«, Suite Nr 6 »Le Grand Jeu«/Hanns Eisler Edition
(Nova/Brilliant Classics)

Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink
“Einheitsfrontlied”
NDR Jazzworkshop, 1973
(TV broadcast)

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Heinz Rögner
“Invention” from Kleine Sinfonie
From Kleine Sinfonie Op 29, Suite Nr 2 »Niemandsland«, Suite Nr 3 »Kuhle Wampe«, Suite Nr 4 »Die Jugend Hat Das Wort«/Hanns Eisler Edition
(Nova/Brilliant Classics)

Jacques Demierre
“Solidaritätslied”
From Fabrik-Songs
(Plainisphare)

Großes Rundfunkorchester Berlin and Berliner Singakademie conducted by Dietrich Knothe
“Einheitsfrontlied”
From Lenin-Requiem, Chöre Und Lieder/Hanns Eisler Edition
(Nova/Brilliant Classics)

François Tusques
“L’Appel Du Komintern” [“Komintern”]
From Le Cabaret De La Dernière Chance
(Vendémiaire)