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Joris Ivens
and Hanns Eisler were both born in 1898; 'a good wine year' Ivens
once said, for Eisenstein and Brecht were also born in that year.
There are several similarities between the carreers of Eisler and
Ivens: both not always welcome in their homelands, and both their
works not always respected because of their communist sympathies.
They met each other in the twenties in the cultural Mecca of Europe
of that time: Berlin.
In 1932, Ivens asked Eisler to come to Magnitogorsk to write the music
and produce the soundtrack for the film Song of Heroes; an ode to
the work of the Komsomol youth to build blast furnaces and towns in
the steppes of the Oural. This became one of the first elaborate soundtracks
for a documentary film, made by a composer. Who better than Eisler
can describe the work he had to do:
I saw directly
that I could not make the music from behind my desk, so I started
as a 'musical reporter'. I first needed information on the realization
and its details, then record the original music of the national minorities,
and the sounds in the factories. The work was not easy for me - who
had not the habit to climb up like a mechanic on te top of a blast
furnace to be able to find the good place for the best sound of this
enormous uproar - so I am always very proud to have recorded more
than seven-hundred and fifteen meters of noises and national minorities
musics in a very unusual atmosphere for me. The second stage of my
work was done in Moscow, where I composed the music of the film, which
I recorded at the Mezjrabom studios. First, with comrade Tretjakov,
I composed the 'Ballad of Magnitogorsk' of the Komsomol. The text
was very simple:
Oural, Oural,
City of the Magnet Mountain,
There is much steel.
The Party says:
Give us … steel!
The Komsomols answer:
Within the ordered time,
We will give you steel!
Eisler and
Ivens had the same ideologies, and both liked to drink, so they became
close friends. Their friendship resulted in a few other collaborations.
In 1934, Ivens had elaborated the film Zuiderzee, on the reclamation
of polderland from the see, to give it a political, anti capitalist,
message. He asked Eisler to compose the music for this documentary.
The most famous sequence of this film is the closing of the dyke:
in which the best qualities of Joris Ivens, Helen van Dongen (who
did the editing), and Hanns Eisler are combined, resulting in a haunting
montage sequence of powerful images accompanied by stirring music.
In 1936 Ivens
went to the United States. Eisler came in 1938, exiled from his homeland.
In 1938 Ivens went to China to film The 400 Million. The last film
for which he asked Eisler to compose the music, and the first documentary
in which twelve tone music is used. But Eisler writes music for yet
another film of Ivens; this time it is Eisler who askes Ivens, in
1941, not if Ivens wants to make a film to accompany his music, but
it he may use the film Rain (1929) for his 'Film Music Project' at
the New School of Social Research in New York. The chambermusic piece
that stems from this project is Eisler's 'Fourteen Ways to Describe
Rain' - a beautiful piece of music, and a beautiful film, however,
together it is not the best match. Instead of talking about music
for the film Rain, it is better to state that Eisler's music is 'inspired
by the film'; only the fact that the music is two minutes longer than
the film says enough. But, looking at their common work, the combination
of the film-maker and the composer has proven to be very fruitful
and powerful.
Interesting
links:
Internationale
Hanns Eisler Gesellschaft
eislermusic.com
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