ABSTRACT
Ernst Krenek's Jonny spielt auf, written in 1926, brought the composer almost instant renown. This chapter discusses how the opera's connection to the world in which it was written was part of the on-going debate at that time about art's place in modern society. The more or less wholly affirmative image of America within the discourse of 'Americanism' constructed a model of a better society, a kind of Utopia, through which the citizens of Weimar Germany attempted to assimilate into their own culture the ideals of a more democratic and more modern nation. Krenek's engagement with the discourse of Americanism in Jonny spielt auf is obvious: Jonny is a black American jazz musician who triumphs over the 'old world'. Krenek's expression gesellschaftbildende Macht is one which had previously been used in a number of writings by the critic Paul Bekker.
