Abstract

This article examines the proletarian-revolutionary song as a small form of intervention situated between literature and music and dependent on physical performance. Around 1930, Hanns Eisler developed a new aesthetic of the proletarian song designed for class conflict, contributing to the current discussion about an operativeart whichalso engaged Bertolt Brecht und Walter Benjamin. A key concept of Eisler’s »Kampfmusik« is the medium of voice, which he both reflects on in lectures, essays and critiques and shapes in detailed instructions for vocal performance. The paper discusses two functions of voice in Eisler’s song aesthetics: 1.) its understanding as an artistic means of production (»Produktionsmittel«) available to the proletariat, and 2.) the engaging quality of vocal performance, opening up various opportunities for physical and political activation as explored by Brecht and Eisler in their cooperation with workers’ choirs in Die Maßnahme (1930).