Music
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French Connection
The Marriage of Figaro Mozart (1786). For Napoleon, the subversive play by Beaumarchais (1778) on which Mozart based his opera, triggered the French Revolution of 1789.
The Marseillaise theme can be heard in Mozart’s piano concerto 25 of the same year as his opera (1786).
(2) La Marseillaise Rouget de Lisle (1792) — arranged by Hector Berlioz (1830).
Joe Hill
Paul Robeson sings “Joe Hill” to Sydney Opera House construction workers in 1960 Alfred Hayes (1925). Music: Earl Robinson (1936)
(2) The Preacher and the Slave Joe Hill (1911) — Utah Phillips
Marx and Engels
Engels called the 1720s satire The Vicar of Bray “the only political folk song remaining popular in England for more than a hundred and sixty years.
https://wikirouge.net/texts/en/The_Vicar_of_Bray_(Engels,_1882)The Vicar of Bray. Arranged P. M. Adamson — selected for diction.
The Vicar of Bray. John Potter and the Broadside Band — selected for 18th century period.
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* See Mark Lindsey’s Marx and Engels on Music https://mronline.org/2010/08/18/marx-and-engels-on-music/
Bundeslied
The Bundeslied, or “Federal Song”, was commissioned by Ferdinand Lassalle for the fledgling Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1863. It is thus historically significant.
Georg Herwegh wrote the words and Hans von Bülow composed four-part music for it. Hanns Eisler substituted Brechtian music for it in the 1920s.
Incidentally, Hans von Bülow was acquainted with Max Stirner (“Saint Max”). Bülow was Franz Liszt’s son-in-law (until opera composer Richard Wagner ‘stole’ his wife). Richard Wagner bonded closely with Mikhail Bakunin in the 1849 Dresden revolt. Georg Herwegh tainted Richard Wagner’s later works with Schopenhauerianism. Hanns Eisler was deported from the USA in 1948 for un-American activities.
“Bet und Arbeit” reminds us that capitalist time is money, and our bread. Our concerned capitalist lets us pray to our heavenly father after hours.
Brass
(1) Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copland (1942)
Fanfares are the preserve of the world’s rulers but in 1942 when Roosevelt’s vice-president Henry Wallace envisaged a post-War era of the “common man”, Aaron Copland wrote a fanfare for him, i.e., for the “common man”.
As the New Deal morphed into the Cold War, Copland fell under attack, in particular for attending a disarmament conference in 1949, which was attended by Einstein, Thomas Mann, Charlie Chaplin, etc. Copland was singled out for befriending fellow composer, Dimitri Shostakovich (sent from USSR by Stalin), whose terrified humiliation at the event ever after haunted Arthur Miller.
Copland’s fanfare is not socialist, but it’s intentionally anti-ruler. Its melody and rhythm re-emerge in Queen — We Will Rock You.
(2) Concierto de Aranjuez, Joaquín Rodrigo (1939)
The concerto was written in Francoist Spain, but its latter-day working-class appeal derives from its rehearsal by a colliery brass band in the movie Brassed Off where it is intercut with backroom conniving to shut the mine down.
Fifties & Sixties
These songs are not socialist—very little music overtly is…
(1) You’ve got to be Carefully Taught, Rogers and Hammerstein (South Pacific, 1949)
From the 1958 movie of the Broadway musical.
(2) The Times They Are a-Changin’, Bob Dylan (1964)
Spirit of ’60s protest.
(3) Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, Pete Seeger (1958-64)
This version by Joan Baez — when will they ever learn?
Great Depression
(1) Brother Can You Spare a Dime, Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney (1932)
Anthem of the Great Depression.
The unembellished singing of Al Jolson captures those desperate times.
(Jolson’s once popular blackface performances are now deprecated for their perceived racism).
(2) Hallelujah I’m a Bum — Theme and variations.
Protest Scene from the movie Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
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