Heidi Hart Ordre des livres

Exploring the intersection of art and politics, this book examines Hanns Eisler's art songs, which reflect the tumultuous political landscape from World War I through the Nazi era and beyond. Rather than providing an escape, Eisler's music engages with nationalist themes, offering a critical response to the times. The narrative progresses from his early works to later settings of Brecht and Hölderlin, culminating in his Serious Songs. Combining musicological insights with practical performance considerations, the author makes the material accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

Music and the Environment in Dystopian Narrative: Sounding the Disaster investigates the active role of music in film and fiction portraying climate crisis. From contemporary science fiction and environmental film to “Anthropocene opera,” the most arresting eco-narratives draw less on background music than on the power of sound to move fictional action and those who receive it. Beginning with a reflection on a Mozart recording on the 1970s’ Voyager Golden Record, this book explores links between music and violence in Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2017 novel The Book of Joan , songless speech in the opera Persephone in the Late Anthropocene , interrupted lyricism in the eco-documentary Expedition to the End of the World , and dread-inducing hurricane music in the Brecht-Weill opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. In all of these works, music allows for a state of critical vulnerability in its hearers, communicating planetary crisis in an embodied way.