Marc Blitzstein

Marc Blitzstein (1905–1964) was a core musical representative of the communist-influenced US-American labour movement whose significance has been largely forgotten today, giving him certain parallels to Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. Alongside his political convictions, Blitzstein also shared a tendency towards the grotesque and parody with the two aforementioned composers, coupled with his ability to adapt “Gebrauchsmusik” [functional music] as a vehicle for political struggle. Adventurous experimentation within a seemingly externally reduced form of music theatre was the focal point of his musical creativity which also displayed a simple pleasure in subversive humour. He also became one of the most prominent voices of American musical life through his lectures and texts.

Blitzstein was born into a wealthy banking family in Philadelphia and was able to develop his abilities within a highly promising environment. After private piano tuition with Alexander Siloti, he studied piano and composition at the Curtis Institute from 1924 to 1926 and gained a reputation as a pianist in performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. During a subsequent two-year study sojourn, Blitzstein was able to study with Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His works originating during this period such as the iconoclastic Piano Sonata were oriented towards the avant-garde of the time.

In the years that followed, Blitzstein divided his time between Europe and the USA while pursuing his career as a music writer, critic and pianist. In parallel to his contemporary Aaron Copland, he developed doubts concerning the direction of new music, seeing an alternative in the approach towards politically committed music theatre as adopted by Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler. He made contact with both individuals in New York and also pursued this path as a composer.

His first work directly influenced by Brecht, “The Cradle Will Rock”, led to a scandal. The authorities literally left no stone unturned in their attempts to prevent the premiere of the politically unpopular composition which had been prepared by Blitzstein in cooperation with Orson Welles; the work was finally performed in extremely reduced form on 12 June 1937 with Blitzstein playing all the characters himself while simultaneously accompanying himself on the piano. Despite these precarious circumstances, the audience was enthusiastic and Blitzstein became a well-known figure virtually overnight. During a staging of the subsequently much-performed work at Harvard University in 1939, Blitzstein made acquaintance with Leonard Bernstein with whom he developed a close friendship.

On his creative path towards politically committed music, Blitzstein was able to clock up a series of successes, for example with the “Airborne Symphony” composed in 1946. Due to the changed political circumstances during the post-war period however, interest in Blitzstein’s own works began to decrease, although his adaptation of the “Dreigroschenoper” by Brecht and Weill retained its popularity. In 1960, Blitzstein received a prestigious commission from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His opera depicting the trial and execution of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927 remained unfinished after the composer became the victim of manslaughter on the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1949.