Paul Dessau (19 December 1894–28 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.
Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family.[1] His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau, was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.[2][1]
From 1909, Dessau majored in violin, studying with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin.[1] In 1912 he became répétiteur at the Stadttheater Hamburg, the municipal theatre.[3] He studied the work of the conductors Felix Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard[de]. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915 .[2]
After World War I he became conductor at the Kammerspiele Hamburg, and was répétiteur and later Kapellmeister at the Cologne Opera under Otto Klemperer between 1919 and 1923. In 1923 he became Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Mainz and from 1925 Principal Kapellmeister at the Städtische Oper Berlin under Bruno Walter.[1][2]
In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the United States,[1] where initially he lived in New York before moving to Hollywood in 1943 (Hennenberg 2001). Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.[3]
Starting in 1952, he taught at the Staatliche Schauspielschule (State drama school) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide where he was appointed professor in 1959. He became a member of the GDR Akademie der Künste in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962.[4] He taught many master classes, his students including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke[de], Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.[citation needed]
Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch (1924), with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann (1948), Antje Ruge[de] (1952), and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus (1954), with whom he had a son, Maxim Dessau (b. 1954) who became a film director.
Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.[1]
Works
Dessau composed operas, scenic plays, incidental music, ballets, symphonies and other works for orchestra, and pieces for solo instruments as well as vocal music. From the 1920s on, he was fascinated by film music. He composed music for early movies of Walt Disney, as well as background music for silent pictures and early German films. While in exile in Paris he wrote the oratorio Hagadah shel Pessach after a libretto by Max Brod. In the 1950s in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht he focused on the musical theatre. During that time several of his operas were produced. He also wrote Gebrauchsmusik (utility music) for the propaganda of the German Democratic Republic. At the same time he lobbied for the musical avant-garde (e.g. Witold Lutosławski, Alfred Schnittke, Boris Blacher, Hans Werner Henze and Luigi Nono). His compositions were published by Schott.[3] The Akademie holds many of his works in its archives.[4]
Operas
All operas by Dessau were premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin.[4]
Die Reisen des Glücksgotts (fragment), 1945 (after Bertolt Brecht)[4]
Die Verurteilung des Lukullus, after Brecht's Das Verhör des Lukullus, 1949–1951, world premiere on 17 March 1951[4]
Puntila, 1956–1959, libretto by Peter Palitzsch and Manfred Wekwerth after Brecht's play, 15 November 1966
Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe [fragment], 1961, after Brecht's play[4]
Lanzelot, 1967–69, libretto by Heiner Müller and Ginka Tsholakova, 19 December 1969[4]
Einstein (opera), 1969–1973, libretto by Karl Mickel, 16 February 1974[4]
Leonce und Lena (opera), 1976–1979, libretto by Thomas Körner[de] after Georg Büchner's play, 24 November 1979[4]
Incidental music
99%- eine deutsche Heerschau" (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches) 1938
Guernica 1938
Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder: Chronik aus dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg 1946–1949
Der gute Mensch von Sezuan 1947–1948
Die Ausnahme und die Regel 1948
Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti, folk play, 1949
Wie dem deutschen Michel geholfen wird.Clownspiel (clown play) 1949
Der Hofmeister 1950
Herrnburger Bericht for youth choir, soloists and orchestra 1951
Mann ist Mann 1951–1956
Urfaust 1952–1953
Don Juan 1953
Der kaukasische Kreidekreis 1953–1954
Coriolan 1964
Film music
Alice the Fire Fighter(Alice und ihre Feuerwehr) (21.8.1928), Alice's Monkey Business(Alice und die Flöhe) (25.9.1928), Alice in the Wooly West(Alice und die Wildwest-Banditen) (18.10.1928) and Alice Helps the Romance(Alice und der Selbstmörder) (31.1.1929) by Walt Disney
L'Horloge Magique. 2. La Forêt enchanté(Der verzauberte Wald) (7 September 1928) and L'Horloge Magique. 1. L'Horloge Magique(Die Wunderuhr) (12 November 1928) by Ladislas Starewitch
Doktor Doolittle und seine Tiere (15 December 1928) by Lotte Reiniger with arrangements of music by Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith and a private composition
Vaterländischer Verdienstorden (Decoration of Honour for Services to the GDR) in Gold 1965
Karl-Marx-Orden (Karl-Marx–Decoration) 1969
National Prize I. Category 1974
Sources
Dessau, Paul. Notizen zu Noten, ed. Fritz Henneberg (Reclam, Leipzig 1974).
Dessau, Paul. Aus Gesprächen (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1974).
Henneberg, Fritz. Dessau – Brecht. Musikalische Arbeiten. (Henschel, Berlin 1963).
Hennenberg, Fritz. Paul Dessau. Eine Biographie. (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1965).
Lucchesi, Joachim (ed.). Das Verhör in der Oper: Die Debatte um die Aufführung "Das Verhör des Lukullus" von Bertolt Brecht und Paul Dessau (BasisDruck, Berlin 1993).
References
Reinhold, Daniela. Hennenberg, Fritz (ed.). "Paul Dessau". Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit (in German). Hamburg University. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
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