La “quinta colonna” sonora. La vicenda di Hanns Eisler a Hollywood

Abstract

The essay intends to investigate the story of Hanns Eisler, who in the United States had courageously tried to introduce modern music into the cinema by freeing it from its ancillary function towards the film and its use as a ‘soundstage’. Eisler, the ‘Karl Marx of the musical world’ was summoned in 1947 and it was with his hearing that the season of McCarthyism opened. But what were the main points of the indictment of HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities) against the composer? And why was he indicted with a subsequent request for deportation to the American immigration authorities, despite the fact that no clear and truly compromising evidence came to light? This contribution aims to answer these questions, without neglecting a reflection on the artistic outcomes of the German composer’s involvement in film.

Keywords

• anticomunism
• cinema
• cultural front
• huac
• music