The present booklet of 17 songs by Hanns Eisler to texts by Bertolt Brecht from the years between 1931 and 1950 not only makes accessible prints from the long out-of-print and sought-after edition “Lieder und Kantaten” (10 volumes, 1955-1966, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig) – it also represents a small “song chronicle” from one of the most intensive and “momentous” poet/musician relationships of our century.

Eisler and Brecht most probably met for the first time in July 1927 at the festival “Deutsche Kammermusik” in Baden-Baden, after which they saw each other on various occasions, and in May 1930 – with the joint work on the didactic play “Die Maßnahme” – their decades-long collaboration and friendship began, only ending with Brecht’s death in August 1956. Eisler’s Brecht settings include well over 100 songs (not counting the pieces from the large stage music), several chamber and large orchestral cantatas, and parts of the German Symphony. Thus Brecht is without question Eisler’s most important lyricist.