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Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950), was a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, and in his later years American, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the stage
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
. He also wrote a number of works for the concert hall.

Julian Weill was born on March 2, 1900 , the third of four children to Albert Weill (1867–1950) and Emma Weill née Ackermann (1872–1955).






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Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950), was a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, and in his later years American, composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the stage
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
. He also wrote a number of works for the concert hall.

Early life

Kurt Julian Weill was born on March 2, 1900 , the third of four children to Albert Weill (1867–1950) and Emma Weill née Ackermann (1872–1955). He grew up in a religious Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish family in the "Sandvorstadt", the Jewish quarter in Dessau
Dessau

Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the States of Germany of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Ro?lau....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, where his father was a cantor
Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the synagogue in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources....
.. At the age of twelve, Kurt Weill started taking piano lessons and made first attempts at writing music; his earliest preserved composition was written in 1913 and is titled Mi Addir. Jewish Wedding Song.

In 1915, Weill started taking private lessons with Albert Bing, Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German language word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound word, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister ....
 at the "Herzogliche Hoftheater zu Dessau", who taught him piano, composition, music theory, and conducting. Weill performed publicly on piano for the first time in 1915, both as an accompanist and soloist. The following years he composed numerous Lied
Lied

, is a German language word, meaning literally "song"; among English speakers, however, the word is used primarily as a term for European European classical music songs, also known as art songs....
er to the lyrics of poets such as Eichendorff, Arno Holz
Arno Holz

Arno Holz was a German poet and dramatist.Holz started his career as a journalist and moved on to become a freelance writer. From 1888 he worked with Johannes Schlaf....
, and Anna Ritter, as well as a cycle of five songs titled Ofrahs Lieder to a German translation of a text by Yehuda Halevi
Yehuda Halevi

Judah Halevi, in full Judah ben Shemuel Ha-Levi, also Yehuda Halevi, or Yehuda ben Samuel Halevi was a Sephardic philosopher and poet....
.

Weill graduated with an Abitur
Abitur

'Abitur' is a designation used in Germany and Finland for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling ....
 from the Oberrealschule of Dessau in 1918, and enrolled at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik
Berlin University of the Arts

The Universit?t der K?nste Berlin, UdK is a Germany university founded in 1975 with the merger of the Berlin State School of Fine Arts and the Berlin State School of Music and the Performing Arts....
 at the age of 18, where he studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck was a Germany composer, best known for his opera, H?nsel und Gretel .Humperdinck was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province....
, conducting with Rudolf Krasselt, and counterpoint with Friedrich E. Koch, and also attended philosophy lectures by Max Dessoir
Max Dessoir

Max Dessoir was a Germany philosopher and theorist of aesthetics.Dessoir was born in Berlin. He earned doctorates from the universities of Humboldt University of Berlin and University of W?rzburg ....
 and Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer

Ernst Cassirer was a Germany Jewish philosopher. Coming out of the Marburg tradition of neo-Kantianism, he developed a philosophy of culture as a theory of symbols founded in a Phenomenology of epistemology....
. The same year, he wrote his first string quartet
String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group....
 (in B minor).

Early work and compositions

Weill's family experienced financial hardship in the aftermath of World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, and in July 1919, Weill abandoned his studies and returned to Dessau, where he was employed as a répétiteur
Répétiteur

R?p?titeur , repetitore , or Korrepetitor / Repetitor , originally from the French language verb r?p?ter meaning "to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearsal"....
 at the Friedrich-Theater under the direction of the new Kapellmeister, Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch

File:Hans Knappertsbusch.jpgHans Knappertsbusch was a Germany Conducting, best known for his performances of the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss....
. During this time, he composed an orchestral suite
Orchestral suite

An orchestral suite is a suite of stylized dances for orchestra, either originally composed or as a series of brief orchestral excerpts from a longer work, such as a ballet, opera, film score, or musical....
 in E-flat major, a symphonic poem
Symphonic poem

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extramusical program provides a narrative or illustrative element....
 of Rilke's The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke as well as Schilflieder, a cycle of five songs to poems by Nikolaus Lenau
Nikolaus Lenau

Nikolaus Lenau was the nom de plume of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau , a Hungarian-Austrian poet....
. In December 1919, through the help of Humperdinck, Weill was appointed as Kapellmeister at the newly founded Stadttheater in Lüdenscheid
Lüdenscheid

L?denscheid is a town in the M?rkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Sauerland region. L?denscheid is seat of the administration of the M?rkischer Kreis district....
, where he directed opera, operetta, and singspiel
Singspiel

Singspiel is a form of German language music drama, regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, sometimes performed over music, interspersed with Musical ensemble, popular songs, ballads and arias ....
 for five months, and also composed a cello sonata
Cello sonata

A cello sonata usually denotes a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic music cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven....
 and Ninon of Lenclos, a now lost one-act operatic adaptation of a play by Ernst Hardt
Ernst Hardt

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Hardt , born Ernst St?ckhardt,, was a Germany playwright, poet, and novelist.Hardt was born in Grudziadz, West Prussia....
. From May to September 1920, Weill spent a couple of months in Leipzig
Leipzig

Leipzig is, with a population of over 511,252, the largest city in the States of Germany of Saxony, Germany....
, where his father had become the new director of a Jewish orphanage. Before he returned to Berlin, in September 1920, he composed Sulamith, a choral fantasy for soprano, female choir, and orchestra.

Studies with Busoni

Back in Berlin, Weill had an interview with Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conducting....
 in December 1920. After examining some of Weill's compositions, Busoni accepted him as one of five master students in composition at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. From January 1921 to December 1923, Weill studied music composition with him and also counterpoint with Philipp Jarnach
Philipp Jarnach

Philipp Jarnach was considered in the 1920s to be one of the most important composers of modern music.Jarnach was the son of a Spanish sculptor and a Flemish mother....
 in Berlin. During his first year he composed his first symphony
Symphony

A symphony is a musical composition, often extended and usually for orchestra. "Symphony" does not imply a specific form. Many symphonies are tonality works in four movement with the first in sonata form, and this is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "Classical period " symphony, although even some symphonies by the ac...
, Sinfonie in einem Satz, as well as the lieder Die Bekehrte (Goethe} and two Rilkelieder for voice and piano. In order to support his family in Leipzig, he also worked as a pianist in a Bierkeller tavern. In spring of 1922, Weill joined the November Group's music faction. That year he composed a psalm, a divertimento
Divertimento

Divertimento is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted and it is generally composed for a small Musical ensemble....
 for orchestra, and Sinfonia Sacra: Fantasia, Passacaglia, and Hymnus for Orchestra. On November 18, 1922, his children's pantomime
Pantomime

Pantomime is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in Great Britain, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Republic of Ireland, Gibraltar and Republic of Malta, and is usually performed during the Christmas and New Year season....
 Die Zaubernacht (The Magic Night) premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm; it was the first public performance of any of Weill's works in the field of musical theatre
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
.

Out of financial need, Weill taught music theory and composition to private students from 1923 to 1925. Among his students were Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau Le?n was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque music to 20th century classical music composers, especially Chopin and Beethoven....
, Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel

Maurice Abravanel , was aSwitzerland-United States of America Jewish conductor of classical music....
, Henry (then known as Heinz) Jolles
Henry Jolles

Henry Jolles , born Heinz-Frederic Jolles, was a Germans pianist and composer. Uprooted from his native Germany by the rise of Nazism, he spent his last quarter-century in Brazil....
, and Nikos Skalkottas. Arrau, Abravenel, and Jolles, at least, would remain members of Weill's circle of friends thereafter, and Jolles's sole surviving composition predating the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933 is a fragment of a work for four pianos he and Weill wrote jointly. Weill's compositions during his last year of studies included Quodlibet, an orchestral suite version of Die Zaubernacht, Frauentanz, seven medieval poems for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, french horn, and bassoon, and Recordare for choir and children's choir to words from the Book of Lamentations
Book of Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Judaism Tanakh. It is traditionally read by the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem....
. Further premieres that year included a performance of his Divertimento for Orchestra by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Heinz Unger on April 10, 1923, and the Hindemith-Amar Quartet
Amar Quartet

The Amar Quartet, also known as the Amar-Hindemith Quartet, was a musical ensemble founded by the composer Paul Hindemith in 1921 in Germany, and was extremely active in both classical and modern repertoire until being disbanded in 1929....
's rendering of Weill's String Quartet op. 8, on June 24, 1923. In December 1923, Weill finished his studies with Busoni.

Success in the 1920s and early 1930s

In February 1924 the conductor Fritz Busch
Fritz Busch

Fritz Busch was a Germany Conducting.Busch was born in Siegen, Province of Westphalia. He held posts conducting opera at Aachen, Stuttgart and Dresden....
 introduced him to the dramatist Georg Kaiser
Georg Kaiser

Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist. Although he was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles, he made his mark as the most successful expressionist dramatist and, along with Gerhart Hauptmann, the most frequently performed playwright in the Weimar Republic....
, with whom Weill would have a long-lasting creative partnership resulting in several one-act operas. At Kaiser's house in Grünheide
Grünheide

Gr?nheide is a Municipalities of Germany in the Oder-Spree district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated south-east of Berlin....
, Weill also first met the actress and future wife Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya

Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill....
 in summer 1924. The couple got married twice: In 1926 and again in 1937 (following their divorce in 1933). Lenya took great care to support Weill's work, and after his death she took it upon herself to increase awareness of his music, forming the Kurt Weill Foundation.

From November 1924 to May 1929, Weill wrote hundreds of reviews for the influential and comprehensive radio program guide Der deutsche Rundfunk. Hans Siebert von Heister had already worked with Weill in the November Group, and offered Weill the job shortly after becoming editor-in-chief.

Although he had some success with his first mature non-stage works (such as the String Quartet, Op. 8 or the Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12), which were influenced by Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a Bohemian-born Austrian composer and conducting. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day....
, Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School....
 and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, considered by many to be the most influential composer of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially Cosmopolitanism Russian who was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the century....
, Weill tended more and more to vocal music and musical theatre
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
. His musical theatre work and his songs were extremely popular with the wider public in Germany at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s. Weill's music was admired by composers such as Alban Berg
Alban Berg

Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Gustav Mahler Romantic music with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique....
, Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander von Zemlinsky

Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conducting, and teacher....
, Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six - also known as the Groupe des Six - and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
 and Stravinsky, but it was also criticised by others: by Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School....
, who later revised his opinion, and by Anton Webern
Anton Webern

Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and Conducting. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known proponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative...
.

His best-known work is The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a Musical theatre by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher....
 (1928), a reworking of John Gay
John Gay

John Gay was an English people poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch....
's The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today....
 written in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht

was a Germany poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the Twentieth-century theatre, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and Theatre, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble?the post-war theatre company operated by Brec...
. Engel directed the original production of The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a Musical theatre by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher....
 in 1928. The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a Musical theatre by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher....
 contains Weill's most famous song, "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife

Mack the Knife or The Ballad of Mack the Knife, originally Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English language, The Threepenny Opera....
" ("Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"). Weill's working association with Brecht, although successful, came to an end over differing politics in 1930. According to Lenya, Weill commented that he was unable to "set the communist party
Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period....
 manifesto to music."

Paris, London and New York

Weill fled Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
 in March 1933. As a prominent and popular Jewish composer, he was a target of the Nazi authorities, who criticized and even interfered with performances of his later stage works, such as Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, 1930), Die Bürgschaft
Die Bürgschaft (opera)

Die B?rgschaft is an opera in three acts by Kurt Weill. Caspar Neher wrote the German libretto after the parable Der afrikanische Rechtspruch by Johann Gottfried Herder....
 (1932), and Der Silbersee
Der Silbersee

Der Silbersee: ein Winterm?rchen is a 'play with music' in three acts by Kurt Weill to a German language text by Georg Kaiser ....
 (1933). With no option but to leave Germany, he went first to Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, where he worked once more with Brecht (after a project with Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau

Jean Maurice Eug?ne Cl?ment Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en sc?ne language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde....
 failed) — the ballet The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chant? in seven scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German language libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James....
.

On 1933-04-13 his musical The Three Penny Opera was given its premiere on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
, but closed after 13 performances to mixed reviews. In 1934 he completed his Symphony No.2, his last purely orchestral work, conducted in Amsterdam and New York by Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter

Bruno Walter was a Germany-born Conducting and composer. He was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939....
, and also the music for Jacques Deval's play, Marie Galante.

A production of his operetta Der Kuhhandel
Der Kuhhandel

Der Kuhhandel is an operetta by Kurt Weill. The German libretto was written by Robert Vambery....
 (A Kingdom for a Cow) took him to London in 1935, and later that year he went to the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in connection with The Eternal Road
The Eternal Road

The Eternal Road is an opera-oratorio with spoken dialogue in four acts by Kurt Weill with a libretto , by Austrian novelist and playwright Franz Werfel and translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn....
, a "Biblical Drama" by Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel was an Austrian people-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet....
 that had been commissioned by members of New York's Jewish community and was premiered in 1937 at the Manhattan Opera House, running for 153 performances. Weill and his wife, the actress and singer Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya

Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill....
, settled in New York City on 1935-09-10, living first at the St. Moritz Hotel before moving on to an apartment at 231 East 62nd Street between Third and Second Avenues. Weill became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943. Weill believed that most of his work had been destroyed, and he seldom (and reluctantly) spoke or wrote German again, with the exception of, for example, letters to his parents who had escaped to Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
.

Rather than continue to write in the same style that had characterized his European compositions, Weill made a study of American popular and stage music, and his American output, though held by some to be inferior, nonetheless contains individual songs and entire shows that not only became highly respected and admired, but have been seen as seminal works in the development of the American musical. He worked with writers such as Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson

James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist. He was a founding member of The Playwrights Company....
 and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, and even wrote a film score for Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-Germany-United States filmmaker, screenwriter and occasional film producer. One of the best known ?migr?s from Germany's school of German Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute....
 (You and Me, 1938). Weill himself strove to find a new way of creating an American opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 that would be both commercially and artistically successful. The most interesting attempt in this direction is Street Scene
Street Scene (opera)

Street Scene is a Broadway theatre musical theater or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice , based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Play of the same name by Rice....
, based on a play by Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice

Elmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene ....
, with lyrics by Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes, was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance....
. For his work on Street Scene Weill was awarded the inaugural Tony Award
Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live United States theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City....
 for Best Original Score
Tony Award for Best Original Score

The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical theatre in that year....
.

In the 1940s Weill lived in Downstate New York
Downstate New York

Downstate New York is a term denoting the southeastern portion of New York, United States, in contrast to Upstate New York. It should be noted that the term "Downstate New York" has significantly less currency than its counterpart term "Upstate New York", and the Downstate region is often not regarded as one cohesive unit but rather though...
 near the New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 border and made frequent trips both to New York City and to Hollywood for his work for theatre and film. Weill was active in political movements encouraging American entry into World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, and after America joined the war in 1941, Weill enthusiastically collaborated in numerous artistic projects supporting the war effort both abroad and on the home front
Home front

Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of its military....
. He and Maxwell Anderson also joined the volunteer civil service
Civil service

The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis of merit which is proven by the use of competitive examinations....
 by working as air raid wardens on High Tor Mountain
High Tor State Park

High Tor State Park is a state park located on the northern edge of the Clarkstown, New York in Rockland County, New York in the USA.The park is for day use only and during the Summer months....
 between their homes in New City, New York
New City, New York

New City is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Hamlet , in the Clarkstown, New York Rockland County, New York, New York, United States. The area is located north of Bardonia, New York; northeast Nanuet, New York; east of New Hempstead, New York and New Square, New York; southeast of Mount Ivy, New York; south of Garnerville, New York;...
 and Haverstraw, New York
Haverstraw (village), New York

Haverstraw is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village in the Haverstraw, New York Rockland County, New York, New York, United States located north of Congers, New York; southeast of West Haverstraw, New York; east of Garnerville, New York; northeast of New City, New York and west of the Hudson River at its widest point....
 in Rockland County
Rockland County, New York

Rockland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, north-northwest of New York City. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area....
. In 1943, he became a United States citizen.

Apart from "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife

Mack the Knife or The Ballad of Mack the Knife, originally Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English language, The Threepenny Opera....
" and "Pirate Jenny" from the Threepenny Opera, his most famous songs include "Alabama Song
Alabama Song

The "Alabama Song" was originally published in Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille . It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny-Songspiel and used again in Weill's and Brecht's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny....
" (from Mahagonny), "Surabaya Johnny" (from Happy End), "Speak Low
Speak Low

"Speak Low" is a popular music song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway theatre musical theatre One Touch of Venus ....
" (from One Touch of Venus), "Lost in the Stars" (from the musical of that name), "My Ship
My Ship

"My Ship" is a popular song written for the 1941 Broadway musical Lady in the Dark, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.The music is marked "Andante espressivo"; Gershwin describes it as "orchestrated by Kurt to sound sweet and simple at times, mysterious and menacing at other"....
" (from Lady in the Dark), and "September Song" (from Knickerbocker Holiday).

Weill suffered a heart attack shortly after his fiftieth birthday and died on April 3, 1950 in New York City. He was buried in Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw, New York
Haverstraw, New York

Haverstraw is the name of two locations in Rockland County, New York:*Haverstraw , New York*Haverstraw , New YorkIt may also refer to:*West Haverstraw, New York...
. The text and music on his gravestone come from the song "A Bird of Passage" from Lost in the Stars
Lost in the Stars

Lost in the Stars is a 1949 musical theater with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton ....
, itself a quotation attributed to the Venerable Bede:

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

Influence

Over fifty years after his death, Weill's music continues to be performed both in popular
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
 and classical
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
 contexts. In Weill's lifetime, his work was most associated with the voice of his wife, Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya

Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill....
, but shortly after his death "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife

Mack the Knife or The Ballad of Mack the Knife, originally Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English language, The Threepenny Opera....
" was established by Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
 and Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s and early 1960s.Darin performed widely in a range of music genres, including pop, jazz, folk and country....
 as a jazz standard
Jazz standard

A jazz standard is a jazz tune that is held in continuing esteem and which is widely known, performed, and recorded among jazz musicians as part of the jazz musical repertoire....
. His music has since been recorded by many performers, ranging from The Doors
The Doors

The Doors were an United States rock music band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by Singer Jim Morrison, keyboard instrument Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger....
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins

Judith Marjorie Collins is an United States folk singer and pop standards singer and songwriter, known for the stunning purity of her soprano; for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism....
, Lou Reed
Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock music musician best known as the guitarist, Singing and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades....
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren

Todd Harry Rundgren , is an United States musician, singer-songwriter and record producer....
, John Zorn
John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, orchestration, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn's recorded output is prolific with hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer, or producer....
, Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause

Dagmar Krause is a Germany singer, best known for her work with avant-garde Rock music Musical ensemble like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears....
, and PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician and songwriter. Raised in Corscombe, Dorset, England, Harvey formed an eponymous band as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who was replaced with Steve Vaughan....
 to New York's Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager and James Levine is music director....
 and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

File:Radio-Symphonieorchester_Wien_logo.svgThe Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra of the ORF . Founded in 1969 with the name of the ORF-Symphonieorchester , it is the only radio orchestra in the country....
. Singers as varied as Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas

Teresa Stratas Order of Canada , is a Canada soprano opera singer....
, Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper

Ute Lemper is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill....
, Gisela May, Anne Sofie von Otter, Max Raabe
Max Raabe

Max Raabe is a Germany singer and band leader of the Palast Orchester. He and his orchestra specialise in recreating the sound of German dance and film music of the 1920s and 1930s, especially by performing songs of the Comedian Harmonists....
, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater

Dee Dee Bridgewater is an United States of America Jazz singer. She is a two-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress....
, and Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull is an award-winning England singer, songwriter, actor and diarist whose career spans over four decades. Her early work in pop and rock music in the 1960s was overshadowed by her struggle with drug abuse in the 1970s....
 have recorded entire albums of his music.

Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer

Amanda MacKinnon Palmer is a performer most noted for being the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the "Brechtian punk cabaret" duo The Dresden Dolls....
, singer/pianist of the 'Brechtian Punk Cabaret' duo the Dresden Dolls, has Kurt Weill's name on the front of her keyboard as a tribute to the composer. In 1991, seminal Swiss
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 Industrial music
Industrial music

Industrial music comprises many styles of experimental music, including many forms of electronic music. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists....
 band The Young Gods
The Young Gods

The Young Gods is a Switzerland Industrial music band. The band's lineup has generally consisted of a vocalist, a sampler operator and a drummer....
 released their album of Kurt Weill songs, The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill
The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill

Play Kurt Weill is a cover album released by Switzerland Industrial music band The Young Gods. All songs appearing on the album are covers of Germany composer Kurt Weill....
. In 2008, Weill's songs were performed by Canadian musicians (including Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean

Sarah Hope Slean is a Canada singer-songwriter, Painting, and photographer from Pickering, Ontario. She has released seven albums to date . She recorded her first EP Universe at the age of nineteen and has since completed four studio albums, Blue Parade , Night Bugs , Day One , and The Baroness ....
 and Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara

Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canada singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings....
) in a tribute concert as part of the first annual Canwest Cabaret Festival in Toronto.

Compositions


Stage works

See List of works for the stage by Weill
List of works for the stage by Weill

This is a complete list of the stage works of the Germany, later USA, composer Kurt Weill ....


Concert works


Cantatas
  • 1920 : Sulamith, choral fantasy for soprano, female chorus and orchestra (lost)
  • 1927 : Der neue Orpheus, cantata for soprano, solo violin and orchestra, op.16 (text: Yvan Goll
    Yvan Goll

    Yvan Goll, born Isaac Lange , was a French-German poet who was perfectly bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both to German expressionism and to French surrealism....
    )
  • 1928 : Das Berliner Requiem, cantata for tenor, baritone, male chorus (or three male voices) and wind orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht

    was a Germany poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the Twentieth-century theatre, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and Theatre, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble?the post-war theatre company operated by Brec...
    )
  • 1929 : Der Lindberghflug, cantata for tenor, baritone and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht

    was a Germany poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the Twentieth-century theatre, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and Theatre, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble?the post-war theatre company operated by Brec...
    , first version with music by Paul Hindemith
    Paul Hindemith

    Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and Conducting....
     and Weill, second version, also 1929, with music exclusively by Weill)
  • 1940 : The Ballad of Magna Carta, cantata for tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra (text: Maxwell Anderson
    Maxwell Anderson

    James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist. He was a founding member of The Playwrights Company....
    )


Chamber music
  • 1918 : String Quartet in B minor (without opus number)
  • 1923 : String Quartet op. 8
  • 1919–1921 : Sonata for Cello and Piano


Piano music
  • 1917 : Intermezzo
  • 1937 : Albumblatt for Erika (transcription of the pastorale from Der Weg der Verheissung)


Orchestral works
  • 1919 : Suite for orchestra
  • 1919 : Die Weise von Liebe and Tod, symphonic poem for orchestra after Rainer Maria Rilke
    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety ? themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets....
     (lost)
  • 1921 : Symphony No.1 in one movement for orchestra
  • 1922 : Divertimento for orchestra, op.5 (unfinished, reconstructed by David Drew
    David Drew

    David Elliott Drew United Kingdom politician. He is the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for Stroud .David Drew was born in Gloucestershire, the son of an accountancy, and was educated at the Kingsfield School, Kingswood, South Gloucestershire before attending the University of Nottingham where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts deg...
    )
  • 1922 : Sinfonia Sacra, Fantasia, Passacaglia and Hymnus for orchestra, op. 6 (unfinished)
  • 1923 : Quodlibet, suite for orchestra from the pantomime Zaubernacht, op. 9
  • 1925 : Concerto for violin and wind orchestra, op. 12
  • 1927 : Bastille Musik, suite for wind orchestra (arranged by David Drew, 1975) from the stage music to Gustav III, by August Strindberg
  • 1928 : Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, suite from Die Dreigroschenoper for wind orchestra, piano and percussion, (premiere conducted by Otto Klemperer
    Otto Klemperer

    Otto Klemperer was a German-born Conducting and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century....
    )
  • 1934 : Suite panaméenne for chamber orchestra, (from Marie Galante)
  • 1934 : Symphony No. 2 in three movements for orchestra, (premiere by Royal Concertgebouw orchestra under Bruno Walter
    Bruno Walter

    Bruno Walter was a Germany-born Conducting and composer. He was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939....
    )
  • 1947 : Hatikvah, arrangement of the Israeli National Anthem for orchestra


Lieder, Lieder cycles, songs and chansons
  • 1919 : Die stille Stadt, for voice and piano, text: Richard Dehmel
    Richard Dehmel

    Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel was a Germany poet and writer....
    )
  • 1923 : Frauentanz op.10, Lieder cycle for soprano, flute, viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon (after medieval poems)
  • 1923 : Stundenbuch, Lieder cycle for baritone and orchestra, text: Rainer Maria Rilke
    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety ? themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets....
  • 1925 : Klopslied, for high voice, two piccolos and bassoon ('Ick sitze da un' esse Lops'/Berliner Lied)
  • 1927 : Vom Tod im Wald (Death in the Forest), Op. 23, ballad for bass solo and ten wind instruments, text: Bertolt Brecht
  • 1928 : Berlin im Licht-Song, slow-fox, text: Kurt Weill; composed for the exhibition Berlin im Licht, first performance in Wittenbergplatz (with orchestra) on 13 October, and on 16 October in the Kroll Opera
    Krolloper

    The Kroll Opera House was an opera building in Berlin, Germany, on the western edge of the K?nigsplatz, Berlin , facing the Reichstag . It was built in 1844 as an entertainment venue for the restaurant owner Joseph Kroll, on a site donated by Friedrich Wilhelm IV....
     (with voice and piano)
  • 1928 : Die Muschel von Margate: Petroleum Song, slow-fox, text: Felix Gasbarra for the play by Leo Lania, Konjunktur
  • 1928 : Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen (In Potsdam under the Oak Trees), song for voice and piano, alternatively male chorus a cappella, text: Bertolt Brecht
  • 1928 : Das Lied von den braunen Inseln, text: Lion Feuchtwanger
    Lion Feuchtwanger

    Lion Feuchtwanger was a Germany-Jewish novelist and playwright....
    , from the play by same author, Petroleum Inseln
  • 1933 : Der Abschiedsbrief, text: Erich Kästner
    Erich Kästner

    Erich K?stner was one of the most famous German language literature, screenplay writers, and Satire of the 20th century. His popularity in Germany is primarily due to his humorous and perceptive children's literature and his often satirical poetry....
    , intended for Marlene Dietrich
    Marlene Dietrich

    Marlene Dietrich ; was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself....
  • 1933 : La complainte de Fantômas, text: Robert Desnos
    Robert Desnos

    Robert Desnos , was a French surrealist poet who played a key role in the surrealistic movement of his day....
    ; for a broadcast of Fantômas
    Fantômas

    File:Fantomas early film poster.jpgFant?mas is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre .One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fant?mas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11 volumes writ...
     in November 1933 (the music was lost, and later reconstructed by Jacques Loussier
    Jacques Loussier

    Jacques Loussier is a noted pianist and composer.He is well known for his jazz interpretations of many of Johann Sebastian Bach's works, such as the Goldberg variations....
     for Catherine Sauvage)
  • 1933 : Es regnet, text: Jean Cocteau
    Jean Cocteau

    Jean Maurice Eug?ne Cl?ment Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en sc?ne language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde....
     (direct into German)
  • 1934 : Je ne t'aime pas, text: Maurice Magre for the soprano Lys Gauty
  • 1934 : J'attends un navire, text: Jacques Deval, from Marie Galante ; as an independent song for Lys Gauty; used for the Hymne der Resistance during the Second World War
  • 1934 : Youkali (originally the Tango habanera, instrumental movement in Marie Galante), Text: Roger Fernay
  • 1934 : Complainte de la Seine, text: Maurice Magre
  • 1939 : Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, song for voice and piano, text: Robert Frost
    Robert Frost

    Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech....
     (unfinished)
  • 1942 : Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, patriotic song arrangements for narrator, male chorus, and orchestra, of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (text: Julia Ward Howe), The Star-Spangled Banner (text: Francis Scott Key), America (text: Samuel Francis Smith) and Beat! Beat! Drums! (text: Walt Whitman)
  • 1942-44 : Propaganda Songs, for voice and piano; written for the Lunch Hours Follies performed for the workers of a shipbuilding workshop in New York, then broadcast:
    • 1942 : Buddy on the Nightshift, text: Oscar Hammerstein
      Oscar Hammerstein

      Oscar Hammerstein may refer to*Oscar Hammerstein I , cigar manufacturer, opera impresario and theatre builder*Oscar Hammerstein II , Broadway lyricist, songwriting partner of Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers...
    • 1942 : Schickelgruber, text: Howard Dietz
      Howard Dietz

      Howard Dietz was an United States publicist, lyricist, and Libretto....
  • 1942 : Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? (And what was sent to the soldier's wife?), ballad for voice and piano, text: Bertolt Brecht
  • 1942-47 : Three Walt Whitman Songs, later Four Walt Whitman Songs for voice and piano (or orchestra), text: Walt Whitman
    Walt Whitman

    Walter Whitman was an United States Poetry of the United States, essayist, journalism, and humanism. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and literary realism, incorporating both views in his works....
  • 1944 : Wie lange noch?, text: Walter Mehring
    Walter Mehring

    Walter Mehring was a Germany author and one of the most prominent Satire authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Nazi Germany, and fled the country....
    ; premiere: Lotte Lenya


Film music

  • 1945 : Where Do We Go From Here?
    Where Do We Go From Here? (movie)

    Where Do We Go From Here is an original movie musical produced by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1945 starring Fred MacMurray, June Haver, Joan Leslie, Gene Sheldon, Anthony Quinn and Fortunio Bonanova....
     text: Ira Gershwin
    Ira Gershwin

    Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....


Select discography


Orchestral, chamber, choral and other works
  • Berliner Requiem / Violin Concerto op.12 / Vom Tod im Walde. Ensemble Musique Oblique/ Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi, 1997)
  • Kleine Dreigroschenmusik / Mahagonny Songspiel / Happy End / Berliner Requiem / Violin Concerto op.12. /Ballade vom Tod im Walde op.23 /Pantomime I (from Der Protagonist op.14) London Sinfonietta
    London Sinfonietta

    The London Sinfonietta is an England chamber music orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and jazz musicians....
    , David Atherton
    David Atherton

    David Atherton Order of the British Empire, is an English people conducting....
    , Nona Liddell (violin), Meriel Dickinson (mezzo-soprano), Mary Thomas (mezzo-soprano), Philip Langridge (tenor), Ian Partridge (tenor), Benjamin Luxon (baritone), Michael Rippon (bass), (Deutsche Grammophon 4594422, 1999)
  • Kurt Weill à Paris, Marie Galante and other works. Loes Luca, Ensemble Dreigroschen, directed by Giorgio Bernasconi, assai, 2000
  • Melodie Kurta Weill'a i cos ponadto Kazik Staszewski
    Kazik Staszewski

    Kazik Staszewski is a Poland lead singer, songwriter, and leader of the Band Kult .Kazik founded Kult in 1982. Their latest album is 2005's Poligono Industrial....
     (SP Records, 2001)
  • Complete String Quartets. Leipziger Streichquartett (MDG 307 1071-2)


Song collections
  • Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theatre Songs (Sony 1997)
  • Speak Low - Songs by Kurt Weill - Anne Sofie von Otter, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
    John Eliot Gardiner

    Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE Fellowship of King's College London is an England conducting. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre R?volutionnaire et Romantique ....
     (Deutsche Grammophon
    Deutsche Grammophon

    Deutsche Grammophon is a Germany classical record label, now part of the Universal Music Group. The company has long been known for its high standards of high fidelity....
     1995)
  • Youkali: Art Songs by Satie, Poulenc and Weill. Patricia O'Callaghan (Marquis, 2003)
  • The Unknown Kurt Weill (Nonesuch LP D-79019, 1981) - Teresa Stratas
    Teresa Stratas

    Teresa Stratas Order of Canada , is a Canada soprano opera singer....
    , soprano, Richard Woitach, piano. Track list: "Nanna's Lied" (1939), "Complainte de la Seine" (1934), "Klops-Lied" (1925), "Berlin im Licht-song" (1928), "Und was Bekam des Soldaten Weib?" (1943), "Die Muschel von Margate: Petroleum Song" (1928), "Wie Lange Noch?" (1944), "Youkali: Tango Habanera" (1935?), "Der Abschiedsbrief" (1933?), "Es Regnet" (1933), "Buddy on the Nightshift" (1942), "Schickelgruber" (1942), "Je ne t'aime pas" (1934), "Das Lied von den Braunen Inseln" (1928)


Tributes
  • Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
    Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill

    Lost In The Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill is a 1985 in music tribute album to German-American composer Kurt Weill. It was executive-produced by Hal Willner and John Telfer, and produced by Hal Willner and Paul M....
     - Produced by Hal Wilner, with performances by various pop (Tom Waits
    Tom Waits

    Thomas Alan Waits is an United Statesn singer-songwriter, composer and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of Bourbon whiskey, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorpo...
    , Lou Reed
    Lou Reed

    Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock music musician best known as the guitarist, Singing and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades....
    , Sting, Marianne Faithfull
    Marianne Faithfull

    Marianne Faithfull is an award-winning England singer, songwriter, actor and diarist whose career spans over four decades. Her early work in pop and rock music in the 1960s was overshadowed by her struggle with drug abuse in the 1970s....
    ) and jazz (Carla Bley
    Carla Bley

    Carla Bley, n?e Borg, is an United States jazz composer, jazz piano, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Ji...
    , Charlie Haden
    Charlie Haden

    Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman....
    , John Zorn
    John Zorn

    John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, orchestration, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn's recorded output is prolific with hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer, or producer....
    ) artists. (A&M Records, 1987)
  • September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill (performed by Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello

    Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
    , PJ Harvey
    PJ Harvey

    Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician and songwriter. Raised in Corscombe, Dorset, England, Harvey formed an eponymous band as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who was replaced with Steve Vaughan....
    , Nick Cave
    Nick Cave

    Nicholas Edward Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, Painting, and occasional film actor. He is best known for his work in the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984 in music, who have become critically acclaimed for their fascination with American roots music....
    , and author William S. Burroughs
    William S. Burroughs

    William Seward Burroughs II was an United States novelist, essayist, social critic, Painting and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life....
    , among others) (Sony Music, 1997)
  • Gianluigi Trovesi
    Gianluigi Trovesi

    Gianluigi Trovesi is an Italian people jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer.A native of Nembro, a small town near Bergamo, Lombardy, he studied harmony and counterpoint under Vittorio Fellegara....
    /Gianni Coscia
    Gianni Coscia

    Gianni Coscia is an Italy jazz accordionist. Originally a lawyer, Coscia began focusing full time on jazz music. Expresses an interest in developing "the remote values of cultural and popular tradition through the language of jazz." Has toured widely on the international jazz circuit....
    : Round About Weill (ECM, 2005)
  • The Young Gods
    The Young Gods

    The Young Gods is a Switzerland Industrial music band. The band's lineup has generally consisted of a vocalist, a sampler operator and a drummer....
     Play Kurt Weill     (Pias, April 1991), Studio recording of the songs performed live in 1989.
  • Ben Bagley
    Ben Bagley

    Ben Bagley was an United States Musical Theatre and Recording industry producer.Bagley moved to New York City during the early 1950s, and at age 22 he produced his first hit, Shoestring Revue, starring Beatrice Arthur and Chita Rivera, and with songs by Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, June Carroll, and Sheldon Harnick....
    's Kurt Weill Revisited and Kurt Weill Revisited, Vol. 2 on the Painted Smiles label boasts rare titles of his, sung by all-star casts, including Chita Rivera
    Chita Rivera

    Chita Rivera is an American actress dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award ....
    , Ann Miller
    Ann Miller

    Ann Miller was an American dancer, singer and actress....
    , Estelle Parsons
    Estelle Parsons

    Estelle Margaret Parsons is an Academy Awards-winning United States theatre, film and television actress. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame....
    , John Reardon
    John Reardon (singer)

    'John Reardon' was an American baritone and actor who was noted for his performances on television,, including many appearances on the PBS children's television show Mr....
    , Tammy Grimes
    Tammy Grimes

    Tammy Lee Grimes is an American award-winning actress and singer....
    , Nell Carter
    Nell Carter

    Nell Carter was an African-United States singer, and film, stage, and television actress....
    , Arthur Siegel
    Arthur Siegel

    Arthur Siegel was an American songwriter. Born on December 31, 1923 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, he studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied music at The Juilliard School....
    , and Jo Sullivan
    Jo Sullivan

    Jo Sullivan, a.k.a. Jo Loesser is a soprano, widow of composer Frank Loesser, and mother of singer-actress Emily Loesser. In her day, she was acclaimed for her beautiful, lyric soprano, as well as for her natural acting ability and interpretive skills....
    , among others.


See also

  • Paul Hindemith
    Paul Hindemith

    Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and Conducting....
  • A Kurt Weill Cabaret
    A Kurt Weill Cabaret

    A Kurt Weill Cabaret was a Broadway theater and off-Broadway production featuring the music of Kurt Weill. The off-Broadway production, starring Will Holt and Martha Schlamme opened in 1963....
  • LoveMusik
    LoveMusik

    LoveMusik is a musical theatre written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low : The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, edited and translated by Lys Symonette & Kim H....


Bibliography

  • David Drew. Kurt Weill: A Handbook (Berkeley, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1987). ISBN 0-520-05839-9.
  • Kim H. Kowalke. A New Orpheus: Essays on Kurt Weill (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986). ISBN 0-300-03514-4.
  • Ronald Sanders. The Days Grow Short: The Life and Music of Kurt Weill (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980). ISBN 0-03-019411-3.
  • Donald Spoto. Lenya A Life (Little, Brown and Company 1989)
  • Lys Symonette & Kim H. Kowalke (ed. & trans.) Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya (University of California Press 1996)
  • David Drew (Editor), Über Kurt Weill (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1975) Excellent collection of texts, including an introduction by David Drew and including texts by Theodor W. Adorno
    Theodor W. Adorno

    Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno was a Germany-born international sociology, philosophy, musicology, and composer. He was a member of the Frankfurt School along with Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, J?rgen Habermas, and others....
  • Jürgen Schebera, Kurt Weill (Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2000)


External links