Hanns Eisler

Filmmusik zu 'The Grapes of Wrath' & 'Hangmen Also Die'

Eisler: Complete Edition (HEGA) Series VI (Film Music) Volume 10

The 'Hanns Eisler Complete Edition' sets out for new shores. Two volumes or three scores open the extensive Group VI 'Film Music'. With 'The Grapes of Wrath' and 'Hangmen Also Die' the editors combine two compositions in one volume, both of which originate from the Hollywood era, but which could not be more different in terms of the occasion of their creation. The short music for John Steinbeck's film 'The Grapes of Wrath' is one of the experiments of the Rockefeller Film Music Project (1940-1942), in the course of which Eisler composed alternative music for selected scenes of already existing films. For Fritz Lang's feature-length anti-Nazi film 'Hangmen Also Die', Eisler then drew on the Grapes music selectively, ultimately creating an extensive film music score that even earned him an Oscar nomination in 1944.