Titel	an influential composer in Hollywood (Hanns Eisler)
Labels
ID	4937
Type	None
Date	1942 - 1948

Collection(s)	manually created entity
Uri(s)	https://ica.acdh-dev.oeaw.ac.at/entity/4937/
Notes	Hanns Eisler came to New York City in 1938 because he received a teaching assignment at the New School for Social Research. From 1940 to 1942 he made experimential studies about the function of music in film. A result of these studies was the publication "Komposition für den Film" together with Theodor W. Adorno in 1947. It contains harsh criticism on the film music manufacture in Hollywood. In April 1942, however, Eisler himself went to Hollywood to find ways of income. Furthermore, his good friend Bertold Brecht and his former teacher Arnold Schönberg lived in the area. Eisler had a lot of success, for example with his film scores for Fritz Lang’s "Hangmen Also Die" (1943) and Clifford Odet’s "None But the Lonely Heart". He received a good income thanks to eight film scores, but his main work in these years were the 50 songs of the "Hollywooder Liederbuch". A main theme in this work are Eisler’s experiences of emigration. His house in Malibu was a meeting point for many artists among them Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin. Hanns Eisler was a political artist but he never got into any political activities while being in the U.S. Nevertheless he was accused of "un-American activities" by the HUAC (House Commitee of Un-American activities) in 1947 and expelled from the country. Lots of prominent personalities tried to help Eisler stay in the U.S. but to no avail. On 28 February 1948 there was a farewell concert in his honor - among the organisers were Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland. One month later, Eisler left the U.S. and went back to Vienna.