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 “Deu...