Kurt Weill

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Kurt Weill (1932)

Kurt Julian Weill (born March 2, 1900 in Dessau , † April 3, 1950 in New York ) was an American composer from Germany. He first gained fame through his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht ( The Threepenny Opera 1928, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny 1930, The Seven Deadly Sins premiered in 1933 at the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées). After the National Socialists came to power , he fled to France in 1933 because of his Jewish descent and emigrated to the United States in 1935. In the 1940s he was a successful musical composer on Broadway in New York. In 1943 he took on the US citizenship . Kurt Weill's work includes operas, operettas, music for ballets and drama, musicals, works for orchestra, chamber music, lieder, songs and chansons.

Life

Childhood and youth

Kurt Weill came from a Jewish family . His father Albert Weill came from Kippenheim in Baden , where there was a flourishing Jewish rural community until the Nazi era . At the time Kurt was born he was cantor of the Jewish community in Dessau, and later also in Eichstetten am Kaiserstuhl . Kurt was the third oldest son. His brothers Nathan and Hans were born in the previous two years, his sister Ruth in 1901.

Kurt Weill began playing the piano at the age of five. The first compositions were created at a young age. He attended the secondary school in Dessau and shone there especially with his musical skills. Not yet 18 years old, he already accompanied a Dessau opera singer at the piano in recitals, where he also performed his first own songs.

Career in Germany

Berlin memorial plaque on Altonaer Strasse 22 in the Hansaviertel

Kurt Weill began in 1918 with the study of music at the Academy of Music in Berlin . In 1920 an engagement as Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Lüdenscheid followed . The time as a student of Ferruccio Busoni was decisive for his later work, especially his operatic aesthetics . In his early opera projects from 1925, Weill used libretti by Georg Kaiser and Yvan Goll .

On January 28, 1926, he married the actress and chanson singer Lotte Lenya , an interpreter and protagonist of his works. In the same year Weill was a radio critic for the magazine Der deutsche Rundfunk .

In 1927 he began to work with Bertolt Brecht , which resulted in The Threepenny Opera in 1928 . Weill had already processed influences from contemporary dance music before 1927 , including in the Royal Palace Opera . The so-called “song style” Weills, developed from 1927 on, is strongly influenced by this, and especially by the jazz style of Paul Whiteman . This style is most concisely used in the Threepenny Opera and in Happy Ending . At the same time, he also used a neoclassical or neo-baroque musical language, e.g. B. in the overture to the Threepenny Opera , in the hurricane scene of the rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny and above all in the opera Die Bürgschaft .

His music sparked a divided echo, especially among composers. While the Threepenny Opera became extremely popular, fellow composers such as Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern completely rejected it. However, others such as Alban Berg , Theodor W. Adorno and Alexander Zemlinsky showed great interest in Weill's work. Berg attended a performance by Mahagonny and Zemlinsky sat down as a conductor for the Quodlibet op. 9 (1923) and Mahagonny (1930).

After the seizure of power of the Nazis in Germany in early 1933 gave Lenya in Charlottenburg for divorce. The reasons for this are on the one hand in the affair between Lenya and the tenor Otto Pasetti; the two had met while staging the rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny . In addition, it was already becoming apparent that Kurt Weill would flee Germany. The divorce enabled Lenya to save at least some of Weill's possessions from being confiscated by the Nazis.

Weill fled to Paris, where he composed a ballet with singing ( The Seven Deadly Sins , text Bertolt Brecht) and completed his second symphony for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées . In Germany, his works fell victim to the book burning in May 1933.

Emigration, successes on Broadway

In 1935 Weill and Lenya emigrated to the USA together. They left Europe from Cherbourg in September 1935 and reached New York on September 10 on the SS Majestic . On January 19, 1937, both remarried at the Westchester County registry office near New York City.

A major work of the early exile is The Path of Promise or The Eternal Road , a Bible game that depicts the history of the Jewish people. It's a mixture of drama , liturgy and opera.

In the 1940s Weill had great success on Broadway with various musicals , e. B. one about psychoanalysis with dream sequences ( Lady in the Dark , 1941). He received American citizenship in 1943. In the same year, Ben Hecht's piece We will never die about the Shoah , for which he had written the music, premiered.

Notable works from Weill's last creative period are the “American opera” Street Scene , which represents a synthesis between European opera (the Puccini influences are unmistakable) and American musicals, and the “musical tragedy” Lost in the Stars , which addresses South African apartheid and works musically with African stylistic devices. In February 1950, Weill began working with Maxwell Anderson on a musical based on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn . The planned musical comedy, however, remained unfinished.

death

Weill became seriously ill in March 1950, was admitted to the Flower Hospital in New York City on March 19, and died there on April 3, 1950 of complications from a heart attack .

Kurt Weill was buried on April 5 in Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw . The mourners included Lotte Lenya , Maurice Abravanel , Maxwell and Mab Anderson, Marc Blitzstein , Marc Connelly , Charles MacArthur , Helen Hayes , Rouben Mamoulian , Erwin Piscator , Jo Révy, Elmer Rice and Arthur Schwartz . The simple funeral ceremony consisted of a short obituary by Maxwell Anderson . It contained a passage from Lost in the Stars , which was chosen as the inscription for Weill's tombstone:

A bird of passage out of night
Flies in at a lighted door,
Flies through and on in its darkened flight
And then is seen no more.

This is the life of men on earth
Out of darkness we come at birth
Into a lamp-lit room, and then
Go forward into dark again.

Weill's nationality

When Kurt Weill was named a German composer by Life magazine in 1947 , Weill protested in a public letter:

“Although I was born in Germany, I don't call myself a 'German composer'. The Nazis clearly did not designate me as such, and I left their country in 1933 […] I am an American citizen, during my twelve years in this country I composed exclusively for the American stage […] I would appreciate your Readers could point out this fact. "

Meaning, reception

Vienna Music Mile

Kurt Weill's name is inextricably linked with Bertolt Brecht, at least in German-speaking countries, and is often overshadowed by the poet. Weill had to defend himself in this regard again and again during his lifetime. In an interview in 1934 he said to a Danish journalist who asked him about the works he had collaborated with Brecht: “It almost sounds as if you thought Brecht composed my music? ... Brecht is a genius; but I am solely responsible for the music in our joint works. "

Weill had a high-contrast musical language, which took on its own character in the respective countries of his life stations - Germany, France, USA. It amazed with the versatility in which avant-garde and assimilation are linked. Jazz standards such as Speak Low or September Song and the French tango Youkali come from Weill's pen. Performers such as Louis Armstrong , Ella Fitzgerald , Frank Sinatra or Nick Cave , Elvis Costello and The Doors interpreted his pieces in their time.

The African American poet Langston Hughes , who wrote the lyrics for Street Scene , said of Weill, “If he had immigrated to India rather than the United States, I believe he would have written wonderful Indian music. (...) That is why Germany can pass Weill as a German, France as a French, America as an American and I as a black. "

Commemoration

Kurt Weill monument in Dessau

Every year around March 2nd, Weill's birthday, the Kurt Weill Festival takes place in Dessau . This usually takes seventeen days. It is funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the city of Dessau-Roßlau . Events include exhibitions, lectures and musical performances in the fields of opera, jazz, dance, classical and contemporary new music.

The Kurt Weill Center is located in the Feininger Masters' House in Dessau . In 2013, a Kurt-Weill-Platz was designed in Berlin-Hellersdorf (Gabriele Wilheim-Stemberger), which, with artistic elements by Sabine Nier, recalls stations in Kurt Weill's life and some well-known works.

Since September 2013, a memorial plaque on the facade of the Grips Theater in the Hansaviertel has been commemorating Kurt Weill in Berlin ; This was suggested by the Kurt Weill Society. Weill had lived there in the summer semester of 1919 as a music student in a garden house. It was destroyed in World War II.

Works (selection)

Operas and similar music-dramatic works

Song games

Incidental music

Operettas

Musicals

300 Pf - postage stamp (2000) for the 100th birthday of Kurt Weill.
Motive: Weill at a rehearsal for One Touch of Venus .

Mimes, ballets

Cantatas

  • 1920: Sulamith , choral fantasy for soprano, female choir and orchestra (lost)
  • 1927: Der neue Orpheus , cantata for soprano, solo violin and orchestra, op.16 (text: Yvan Goll )
  • 1928: Das Berliner Requiem , small cantata for tenor, baritone, male choir (or three male voices) and wind orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht)
  • 1929: Der Lindberghflug , cantata for tenor, baritone and bass soloists, choir and orchestra (Text: Bertolt Brecht, first version with music by Paul Hindemith and Weill, second version, also 1929, with music exclusively by Weill)
  • 1940: The Ballad of Magna Carta , cantata for tenor and bass soloists, choir and orchestra (Text: Maxwell Anderson )

Chamber music

  • 1918: String Quartet in B minor (without opus number)
  • 1919–1921: Sonata for cello and piano
  • 1923: 1st string quartet op.8

Works for piano

Works for orchestra

Songs, song cycles, songs and chansons

Discography

  • Songs , The Seven Deadly Sins + Happy End, Lotte Lenya (rec. 1957 + 60 CBS), (1988 Columbia)
  • Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's , The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theater Songs (Sony 1997)
  • The Threepenny Opera , Lotte Lenya and Others, conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Ruggeberg (Columbia 1987)
  • Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , Lotte Lenya / Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg (Sony 1990)
  • Die Dreigroschenoper , René Kollo , Ute Lemper , Milva , RIAS Kammerchor and RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta / John Mauceri (Decca 1990)
  • Berlin Requiem / Violin Concerto op.12 / Death in the Forest , Ensemble Musique Oblique / Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi, 1997)
  • Little Threepenny Music / Mahagonny Songspiel / Happy End / Berlin Requiem / Violin Concerto op.12 , London Sinfonietta, David Atherton (Deutsche Grammophon, 1999)
  • Eternal Road (Highlights) , Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester / Gerard Schwarz (Naxos, 2003)
  • Symphonies No.1 and No.2 / Lady in the Dark , Symphonie Nocturne , Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Marin Alsop (Naxos, 2005)
  • Speak Low , Songs by Kurt Weill & the Seven Deadly Sins - The Seven Deadly Sins , Anne Sofie von Otter : mezzo-soprano, Bengt Forsberg: piano; NDR Symphony Orchestra: John Eliot Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophone, 1994)
  • Kurt Weill , Berlin & American Theater Songs. Compilation, (CBS-Rec. 1988)
  • String Quartet 1918 / String Quartet op.8 , Leipzig String Quartet (MDG 2001)
  • Der Silbersee , London Sinfonietta, Markus Stenz (BMG 1999)
  • Die Dreigroschenoper , Max Raabe , Nina Hagen , Ensemble Modern , directed by HK Gruber

Foreign arrangements

  • Miles Davis . Miles Ahead (Columbia Records, 1957). Includes My Ship .
  • The Gil Evans Orchestra. Out Of The Cool (Impulse !, 1961). Contains the Bilbao song .
  • The Gil Evans Orchestra. The Individualism of Gil Evans (Verve, 1964). Contains the Barbara song .
  • The Doors . The Doors (Elektra, 1967). Includes the Alabama song .
  • Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (A&M, 1985). With Tom Waits , Lou Reed , Sting , Marianne Faithfull u. a.
  • Mona Mur . Mona Mur (RCA 1988). Includes Surabaya Johnny .
  • Jeff Lynne . Armchair Theater (Warner / Reprise, 1990). Includes the September song .
  • The Young Gods . Play Kurt Weill (Play It Again Sam, 1991).
  • Ute Lemper . Sings Kurt Weill (RCA, 1992).
  • Warren Chiasson . Good Vibes For Kurt Weill (Audiophile, 1994).
  • Helen Schneider . Songs of Kurt Weill (Rhino, 1995).
  • September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill (Sony Music, 1997). With Elvis Costello , PJ Harvey , Nick Cave and others a.
  • Willem Breuker Kollektief & Loes Luca. Kurt Weill (BV Haast, 1998)
  • Bryan Ferry . As Time Goes By (Virgin, 1999). Includes the September song .
  • Caterina Valente . Kurt Weill - American Songs (Bear Family Records, 2000)
  • Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester . Charming Weill: Dance Band Arrangements (RCA, 2001).
  • Martin Gore . Counterfeit 2 (Mute, 2003) Includes Lost In The Stars .
  • Annette Postel . Kurtweilliges - A Biography in Music (Burger and Müller, Karlsruhe, 2003).
  • Gianluigi Trovesi & Gianni Coscia. Round About Weill (ECM, 2005).
  • Slut . Songs from Die Dreigroschenoper (Virgin, 2006). Although Slut recorded thirteen songs from the Threepenny Opera, the estate administrators Kurt Weills allow the publication of only five pieces.
  • Tom Waits . What Keeps Mankind Alive Orphans (ANTI, 2006) "Bastards" disc 3.1.
  • 1981: Teresa Stratas . The Unknown Weill , with Richard Woitach , piano; Elektra Asylum / Nonesuch Record 7559-79019-2
  • Mona Mur & En Esch . 120 days - The Fine Art of Beauty and Violence (PALE MUSIC Int. 2009). Includes Surabaya Johnny , Song by Mandelay , The Ballad of the Drowned Girl
  • 1986: Teresa Stratas. Stratas sings Weill , with the Y Chamber Symphony Orchestra (Conductor: Gerard Schwarz ); Elektra Asylum / Nonesuch Record 7559-79131-2

literature

  • Kim H. Kowalke, Horst Edler (Ed.): A Stranger here myself. Kurt Weill Studies , Olms, Hildesheim 1993, ISBN 3-487-09722-2 (Haskala 8).
  • David Farneth, Elmar Juchem, David Stein (Eds.): Kurt Weill. A life in pictures and documents , Ullstein, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89834-004-X .
  • Jürgen Schebera (Ed.): Weill. A biography in texts, pictures and documents , Schott, Mainz 1990, ISBN 3-7957-0208-9 .
  • Joseph A. Kruse (Ed.): From Kurfürstendamm to Broadway: Kurt Weill (1900–1950) , Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-7700-0879-0 .
  • Peter Petersen : The way of the promise by Weill / Werfel / Reinhardt and Hagadah shel Passover from Dessau / Brod - a comparison. In: Music theater in exile during the Nazi era . von Bockel, Hamburg 2007, pp. 340-370.
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview . P. 528 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Commons : Kurt Weill  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Life , March 17, 1947, p. 17; ( limited preview in Google Book Search): "Although I was born in Germany, I do not consider myself a 'German composer.' The Nazis obviously did not consider me as such either and I left their country (an arrangement which suited both me and my rulers admirably) in 1933. I am an American citizen and during my dozen years in this country have composed exclusively for the American stage [...] ".
  2. ↑ https://kuenste-im-exil.de/KIE/Content/EN/Objects/weill-hochzeitsurkunde-en.html?single=1
  3. ↑ Werner Möller, Elke Mittmann, The world plays roulette. On the culture of modernity in the crisis 1927 to 1932. Campus Verlag, 2002, p. 87.
  4. ↑ Farneth, David, Kurt Weill. A life in pictures and documents. Ullstein, Munich 2000.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Kurt Weill: Musik und Theater. Collected Writings: With a Selection of Conversations and Interviews, ed. by Stephen Hinton and Jürgen Schebera, Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1990, p. 315.
  6. ↑ “Had he immigrated to India instead of the United States of America, I believe he would have written wonderful Indian musical plays, and re-created realistic Indian children's games. Only the universal man and universal artists could do this. " Quoted from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes , ed. by Christopher De Santis, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 349; at the same time also Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and Word Affairs , Vol. 9.
  7. ^ "That is why germany can claim Kurt Weill as German, France as French, American [sic!] As American, and I as a Negro." Quoted from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes , ed. by Christopher De Santis, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 350; at the same time also Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and Word Affairs , Vol. 9.
  8. ↑ Kurt Weill Fest 2020 - Partners & Sponsors. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
  9. ^ Urban redevelopment east and west. Kurt-Weill-Platz .
  10. ↑ http://www.annette-postel.de
personal data
SURNAME Weill, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weill, Kurt Julian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1950
Place of death New York City , New York, United States