WEILL, KURT

WEILL, KURT (1900–1950), composer. The son of a ḥazzan, Weill was born in Dessau and studied under the composer Busoni in Berlin. He at first wrote operas and symphonic and chamber music, but later turned to social satire in the theater. Weill formed an association with the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, with whom he produced a "singspiel," Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1927–29), a savage satire on American life. In 1928 he composed, again with Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper, a modern version of the English 18th-century ballad-opera The Beggar's Opera. This was an extraordinary success in Europe and the United States. After the Nazis seized power in Germany, Weill, accompanied by his wife, the actress Lotte Lenya, moved to Paris and then to London, finally settling in the U.S. in 1935. Unusually adaptable, Weill became acclimatized to American theatrical ways and produced a number of successful musical works, including the Jewish opera The Eternal Road (1937) based on the historical pageant Der Weg der Verheissung written by Franz Werfel; Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), One Touch of Venus (1943), and Love Life (1948). He also wrote a one-act American folk opera, Down in the Valley (1948), and the music for Ben Hecht's pageant in honor of the State of Israel, A Flag is Born (1948). With Hindemith, Kurt Weill was instrumental in shaping the genre of Gebrauchsmusik (utilitarian music), which aimed at producing music accessible to the masses and capable of performance by non-professional groups. This did not, however, exclude the application of dissonant counterpoint and harmony. Weill made liberal use of modern dance rhythms, particularly jazz, often combining these modern resources with nostalgic and even sentimental ballad forms. Weill's music paved the way for many experiments of his younger German contemporaries, including B. Blacher, C. Orff, and H.W. Henze; it also impressed and inspired his American colleagues, such as aaron copland . Today Weill is rightfully considered one of the most influential German composers of his generation. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: MGG2; NG2; Baker, Biog Dict; J. Schebera, Kurt Weill: eine Biographie in Texten, Bildern und Dokumenten (Ger. 1990, Eng. 1995); S. Hinton (ed.), Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera (1990); H. Edler and K.H. Kowalke (eds.), A Stranger Here Myself: Kurt Weill Studien (1992); J. Schebera, Kurt Weill (2000); F. Hirsch, How Can You Tell an American? Kurt Weill on Stage from Berlin to Broadway (2000). (Nicolas Slonimsky / Yulia Kreinin (2nd ed.)