Composing for the Films (Continuum Impacts) - Tapa blanda

This classic account of the nature of film music aesthetics was first published in 1947. Its value comes from a unique combination of talents and experience enjoyed by the book's authors. Eisler's time at Hollywood gave him a particular insight on the technical questions which arise for composers when music is used in the production of films; while Adorno was able to contribute on wide aesthetic and sociological matters as well as specifically musical questions. Above all, the authors envisaged the book as a contribution to the study of modern, industrialised culture; and, in this respect, it has a particular importance to the whole area of cultural studies.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) was a founder and arguably the foremost thinker of the Frankfurt School. He worked with Max Horkheimer at the New York Institute for Social Research and later taught at the University of Frankfurt until his death in 1969. His work has proved enormously influential in sociology, philosophy and cultural theory. Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) is one of the great distinctive musical personalities of the twentieth century. Committedly left-wing and enormously versatile, he composed in various genres: from chamber pieces in the style of the Schoenberg school to `agitprop' ballads and choruses for the Workers' Movement; from full symphonic works to the more conventional film scores he wrote for Hollywood.