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The Communist Manifesto, by Erwin Schulhoff

9K views 18 replies 12 participants last post by  Jeffrey Smith 
#1 ·
Composed by Erwin Schulhoff, who was both jewish and communist and died in the concentration camp of Wülzburg, the history behind this composition is quite interesting.

 
#13 ·
Recording avaiable on lp



There is a recording available on LP number 1.12.2100. It was recorded in 1976 and issued the following year. As far as I am aware there is no CD and given the shift in political allegiance over the last 40 years |I suspect it may get 'lost' in the archives of Supraphon, which is a pity as it's an impressive work
 
#3 ·
Well, I assume that there might be a few out there.
This is a relatively unknown composer, though, because he died rather young and he didn't really reach his compositional climax. Quite a shame.
 
#5 ·
Well, well! I never realised that this was available. As Science says, it would be nice to see this curio recorded again. I'm wondering if the recording here was made by Supraphon or another Czech label during the vinyl era but has never seen the light on CD?
 
#6 ·
Schulhoff has become fairly well known as Science notes. There were recording series dedicated to composers that the Nazis labeled degenerate, and Schulhoff, Gidon Klein, Viktor Ullman, Pavel Haas have been the principal beneficiaries of this attention.
Schuloff's music contains a lot of jazzy elements, and I have heard part of another piece, a Cantata, that was essentially Communist agitprop.
All of the Composers that I mention above wrote interesting Music and while their bios are compelling and sad, thier Art stands on it's own, interesting for it's own sake. Having said that, I am not sure that The Communist Manifesto is something that I would want to hear set to music.
 
#7 ·
Lotte Lenya recalled that that was how Kurt Weill felt about Berthold Brecht towards the end of their collaborative era.
 
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