Work

Rationalizing the Revolution: Jazz in Hanns Eisler’s Kampfmusik

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Hanns Eisler’s Kampfmusik, his revolutionary music for the working class, is famous for its rhythmic energy. Its steady beat has been understood as a legacy of the military march. I argue that this ‘Eisler Bass’ was instead ‘refunctioned’ from interwar German jazz. Using jazz pedagogical manuals to demonstrate how Eisler adapted the steady beat, I position Eisler’s writings and music within discourses of rhythm and rationalized factory labour. While this was central to Eisler’s political ambitions, it also led to his music participating in a larger practice of erasure of racial difference typical of the German Communist Party.

Source: Journal of the Royal Musical Association

DOI: 10.1017/rma.2025.1

Author: JOHN GABRIEL

Language: English

Topic: Musicology and Musical Analysis

Subfield: Music

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550

OpenAlex ID: W4408551851

FWCI:

Cites: 32

Cited by:

Related to: 10