'Composing for the Films' by Theodor W. Adorno and Hanns Eisler as Critical Commentary on Film Music
Joanna Kwapień
University of Wrocław (Poland)
Abstract
"Composing for the Films" is a unique book in film musicology. Published in 1947, it was a nearly immediate response to the fast developing Hollywood film industry. Though it was the product of a collaboration between two authors, Theodor Adorno and Hanns Eisler, for many years it was known only under the name of that latter artist. Despite its original concepts, it has never been analysed by Polish scholars.
The first part of my paper focuses on the circumstances of writing this book and the history of its editions, which was made complicated by both authors’ difficult political situation. Critical theory, as adapted by Adorno for the study of film music, is the key to the concepts contained in this book. In my article, I distinguish four thematic segments in the authors’ commentary: a) criticism of cinematography as a manifestation of mass culture; b) criticism of composition technique in film music; c) criticism of traditional composition techniques and a discussion of the possible uses of new music in films; d) presentation of the dangers related to the use of new technologies in film music. Such a division of topics makes it possible for me to cover all the aspects discussed by the authors, and related to musicology, philosophy, economy, politics, and sociology. My analyses of Adorno and Eisler’s ideas has been extended so as to include Max Weber’s sociological concepts and Adorno’s notions of the fetish character in music, rationalisation, and regression of listening. I also present a survey of selected composition techniques still applied in film music today, which the authors describe as ‘bad habits in composition’.
Keywords:
film music, rationalisation, fetishisation of music, mass culture, critical theory, Hanns Eisler, Theodor W. AdornoReferences
Adorno, Theodor W., Hanns Eisler. Composing for the Films, wstęp Graham McCann. London: Continuum, 2005.
Google Scholar
Adorno, Theodor W., Hanns Eisler. Komposition für den Film. W: Theodor W. Adorno. Gesammelte Schriften, red. Rolf Tiedemann. T. 15. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1976.
Google Scholar
Adorno, Theodor W., Hanns Eisler. Komposition für den Film. W: Hanns Eisler. Gesammelte Schriften, red. Eberhardt Klemm. Seria III, t. 4. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1977.
Google Scholar
Adorno, Theodor W., Hanns Eisler. Komposition für den Film, red. Johannes C. Gall. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 2006.
Google Scholar
Adorno, Theodor W. „O fetyszyzmie w muzyce i o regresji słuchania”. W: Theodor W. Adorno. Sztuka i sztuki, przekł. Krystyna Krzemień-Ojak, wybór Karol Sauerland, s. 100–130. Warszawa: PIW, 1990.
Google Scholar
Applebaum, Louis. „Composing for the Films by Hanns Eisler”. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 8, nr 2 (1949): 133–134.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/426600
Google Scholar
Bick, Sally. „A Double Life in Hollywood: Hanns Eisler’s Score for the Film Hangmen Also Die and the Covert Expressions of a Marxist Composer”. The Musical Quarterly 93, nr 1 (2010): 90–143.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdp026
Google Scholar
Bick, Sally. „Eisler’s Notes on Hollywood and the Film Music Project, 1935–42”. Current Musicology 86 (2008): 7–39.
Google Scholar
Bick, Sally. „The Politics of Collaboration: Composing for the Films and its Publication History”. German Studies Review 33, nr 1 (2010): 141–162.
Google Scholar
Brecht, Bertolt. ,,Zur Soziologie der Oper – Anmerkungen zu Mahagonny”. Musik und Gesellschaft 1, nr 4 (1930): 105–112.
Google Scholar
Brecht, Bertolt. „Über Filmmusik”. W: Bertolt Brecht Werke: Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, red. Werner Hecht, Jan Knopf, Werner Mittenzwei, Klaus-Detlef Müller. T. 23, 10–20. Berlin–Weimar–Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1993.
Google Scholar
Bristiger, Michał. Forma wariacyjna w muzyce instrumentalnej renesansu, red. Halina Sieradz. Warszawa: Liber Pro Arte, Instytut Sztuki PAN, 2008.
Google Scholar
Cavin, Susan. Adorno. Lazarsfeld & The Princeton Radio Project, 1938–1941, http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/7/0/8/pages237089/p237089-1.php, dostęp 28 I 2019.
Google Scholar
Cowell, Henry. „Composing for the Films by Hanns Eisler”. Notes, Second Series 4, nr 4 (1947): 471–472.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/889768
Google Scholar
Didi-Huberman, Georges. „Obraz krytyczny (obraz krytyki)”, przekł. Andrzej Leśniak. Teksty Drugie 27, nr 5 (2016): 360–375.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18318/td.2016.5.23
Google Scholar
Eisler, Hanns. Composing for the Films. London: Dobson, 1951.
Google Scholar
Eisler, Hanns. Komposition für den Film. Berlin: Henschel, 1949.
Google Scholar
Eisler, Hanns, Theodor W. Adorno. „Polityka słyszenia”. W: Kultura dźwięku. Teksty o muzyce nowoczesnej, wybór i red. Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner, przekł. Julian Kutyła, 102–105. Gdańsk: Słowo/Obraz Terytoria, 2010.
Google Scholar
Gołąb, Maciej. Muzyczna moderna w XX wieku. Między kontynuacją, nowością, a zmianą fonosystemu. Wrocław: Uniwersytet Wrocławski, 2011.
Google Scholar
Helman, Alicja. Rola muzyki w filmie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe, 1964.
Google Scholar
Horkheimer, Max, Theodor W. Adorno. Dialektyka oświecenia. Fragmenty filozoficzne, przekł. Małgorzata Łukasiewicz. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2010.
Google Scholar
Hufner, Martin. „Composing for the Films (1947): Adorno, Eisler and the Sociology of Music”. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 18, nr 4 (1998): 535–540.
Google Scholar
Jabłońska, Barbara. Socjologia muzyki. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2014.
Google Scholar
Jacobs, Arthur. „Composing for the Films by Hanns Eisler”. The Musical Times 93, nr 1315 (1952): 405–407.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/934449
Google Scholar
Kalinak, Kathryn. Film Music. A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780195370874.001.0001
Google Scholar
Kłoskowska, Antonina. Kultura masowa. Krytyka i obrona. Warszawa: PWN, 2011.
Google Scholar
Lissa, Zofia. Estetyka muzyki filmowej. Kraków: PWM, 1964.
Google Scholar
Neumeyer, David. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195328493.001.0001
Google Scholar
Parsons, James. „«The Exile’s Intellectual Mission»: Adorno and Eisler’s Composing for the Films”. Telos 149 (2009): 52–68.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3817/1209149052
Google Scholar
Rosen, Philip. „Adorno and Film Music: Theoretical Notes on Composing for the Films”. Yale French Studies 60 (1980): 157–182.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2930010
Google Scholar
Schweinhardt, Peter, Johannes C. Gall. „Composing for the Film: Hanns Eisler’s Lifelong Music Project”. W: Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies, red. David Neumeyer, 131–187. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Google Scholar
Stegmann, Vera. „A DEFA Film Viewed in Light of Brecht’s Critique of the Opera and Eisler/Adorno’s Theory of Film Music”. German Studies Review 28, nr 3 (2005): 481–500.
Google Scholar
Wierzbicki, James. „Hans Eisler and the FBI”, Music and Politics 2, nr 2 (2008): 1–31.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mp.9460447.0002.202
Google Scholar
Authors
Joanna KwapieńUniversity of Wrocław Poland
Statistics
Abstract views: 460PDF downloads: 354
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Muzyka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free nonexclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Muzyka, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in "Muzyka" should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). By submitting an article the author agrees to make it available under CC BY 4.0 license.
Articles from 2018/1 to 2022/3 were published under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. During this period the authors granted the publisher a royalty-free nonexclusive license (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in "Muzyka", retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
