Music professor Sally BickMusic professor Sally Bick will discuss the career of film composer Hanns Eisler in a free public lecture Wednesday.

Lecture to examine intersection of music and politics during Second World War

UWindsor’s Humanities Research Group will present “Made in Hollywood: Negotiating the Musical Voice of a Communist,” a lecture by Humanities Research Group Fellow and UWindsor musicology professor Sally Bick, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in Vanier Hall’s Katzman Lounge.

Dr. Bick, 2015 recipient of the Virgil Thompson Fellowship from the Society of American Music, will discuss the musical career of German Marxist composer Hanns Eisler, who was actively engaged in writing film music to support his Communist cause before immigrating to the United States in 1938.

Once in the U.S., Eisler conformed to Hollywood’s political expectations, though events during the Second World War provided the composer opportunities to integrate some of his political viewpoints within his film scores without appearing to conflict with American mainstream political values.

The lecture is part of the Martin Wesley series. For more information, visit uwindsor.ca/hrg; phone 519-253-3000, ext. 3508; or e-mail hrgmail@uwindsor.ca.