Johnny Strikes up the Band!

opera by Krenek

Also known as: “Jonny Spielt Auf!”

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Last updated

June 29, 2026

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Jonny Spielt Auf! (known in English as Johnny Strikes up the Band!) is an opera by Austrian composer Ernst Krenek. It premiered in 1927 and achieved international success.1

The opera is noted for its innovative style, blending dissonant Expressionism with influences from jazz music. Krenek aimed to capture the essence of modern life in the 1920s through this unique musical idiom. This work was a significant departure from his earlier, Mahler-influenced compositions and his later adoption of the 12-tone method.1

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Ernst Krenek
…opera Jonny Spielt Auf! (1927; Johnny Strikes up the Band!), a work written in an idiom that mixed Expressionist dissonance with jazz influences and strove to reflect modern life in the 1920s. After a period in which he espoused the Romanticism of Franz Schubert, he began in the 1930s to…
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…opera Jonny Spielt Auf! (1927; Johnny Strikes up the Band!), a work written in an idiom that mixed Expressionist dissonance with jazz influences and strove to reflect modern life in the 1920s. After a period in which he espoused the Romanticism of Franz Schubert, he began in the 1930s to…
Read More