Hanns Eisler’s Art Songs: Arguing with Beauty: by Heidi Hart

As twentieth-century composers go, Hanns Eisler is doing very well. Literature on the composer is expanding vibrantly, on both sides of the Atlantic, and transcending language boundaries. It is easy to see why. Eisler’s multifaceted output and colourful life are fascinating and invite multiple approaches, interpretations, and readings. Eisler survived two world wars and numerous political systems, becoming a political refugee twice over in the process. He was one of Schoenberg’s outstanding pupils, worked at the forefront of Hollywood, and, as author of a national anthem (of a now deceased nation, the GDR), probably ranks amongst the twentieth-century’s most performed composers. It is not my intention to categorize the wide diversity of literature on the composer, although...