Ask me more about Brecht
13 March at the University Park Campus Arts Centre
Lecture Theatre (A30)
5-7pm
You are welcome to attend a musical cultural literary performance in English by
Sabine Berendse and Paul Clements, entitled ‘Ask me more about Brecht: Hanns
Eisler in conversation with Hans Bunge’.
Enjoy
the Show!
Bertolt
Brecht was one of the leading German dramatists and poets of the twentieth
century. The composer Hanns Eisler was Brecht’s most politically committed
collaborator and is one of the most fascinating and controversial composers of
the twentieth century. The composer, a student of Arnold Schoenberg, combined
avant-garde music with popular culture and revolutionary politics. His songs,
longstanding ballads of the German left and his arrangement of the concentration-camp
inmates’ song ‘Die Moorsoldaten’ (‘The Peat-Bog Soldiers’) became an anthem of
anti-fascist resistance.
Between
1958 until shortly before his death in 1962, Eisler was interviewed by Hans
Bunge. These recorded conversations are intriguing, entertaining and
informative personal reflections on half a century of artistic and political
turbulence. Sometimes hilarious and at other times moving, they provide an
insight into Eisler’s political ideas and his thoughts on the social
significance of music; his opposition to Hitler and subsequent exile; his
friendship with Bertolt Brecht and their collaboration; the encounter with the
McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities Committee; and artistic, political
and intellectual life in the German Democratic Republic.
Berendse
and Clements recently finished the first complete translation into English of
these conversations. During this event, you will see a dramatic reconstruction
of extracts from the conversations and hear recorded words and music from
Eisler himself.
Sponsored
by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
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