◆ SpookStack

‘ =| Among the other works composed by me while in London, one can mention the music i wrote to Ernst Toller's "Fut Gut the Fires" which deals with the - revolnutionery insurrection of the German sailors in 1917 as well as the emall volume of revolutionary songs. In my opinion "Anti-war" and "gong of the United Front" are the best, oy From England my itinerary continued in America,. I remember this trip with great satisfaction. For one thing, 1 was able to give a great many benefit concerts for political prisoners. Then too, I delivered a whole cycle of mass lectures on German Fascism. These lectures invariably filled vast auditoriums with a large seating capacity, In New York, for example; approximately 5,000 © people ettended, In Hollywood and Ios Angeles workers as well as numerous repre- sentatives of progressive intelligentsia came to the anditorium, fhe local reactionary press (in los Angeles) vehementley took up arms against me and demanded my forceful return to Germany. O yes, the anthors, of these articles conceded the accurateness cf my viewpoint on contemporary German culture, ‘They were €illing to scream, just as loud as I did, against the se - calle¢ "trash" of German migic (eweet and sentimental banalities). "These ideas are absolutely wholesome", the papers wrote, "ther mst be used, but the author must be sent back to Hitler" (1). With great hapriness I must mention the noticeable trend towards the left among american artist intelligentsia, I believe that I am not exagcerating when z Bay thet tne greatest musical ar tists in america (with very few siteptions are in an extremely progressive frame of mind at the present time. Who are they? They are Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Director Riger (greatest pedagogue in msic), the noted msical theoretic, Prof. Sieger, the greatest authority on contemporary music, Slominexy, and finally the brightest star on the American musical firmenent, the most exalted conductor, Leopold Stokowsky, Recently he even risked playing the "International" at one of his philharmonic concerts: An unheard-of scandal elmst developed which however was hnshad mp juet in time Before my departure from America I was offered a professorship as head of the department on composition and theory at the New York Institute of drt. I gladly agreed to accept this proposition, because I hope to be able to do something for the expansion of the young American Musical Movement. i will re- turn to New York by the first of September, Before that it is necessary for me to visit the German author, Bert Brecht, He and I are collaborating in the ecompesition of a msical drama on the topic of the wenality of bourgeois art CONFIDENTIAL as - : . LE RE