Kurt Weill (1900-1950) began his compositional career in Berlin and left his legacy on the American Broadway stage. This study includes an overview of the influences of Lieder composers including Schumann and Strauss on Weill's first song cycle Ofrah's Lieder (1916) and the 20th century influences of Schoenberg and Stravinsky on his chamber music cycle Frauentanz (1923). This study examines how the Weill juvenilia employs diatonic melodies, mood painting, and the integration of vocal and piano parts emulating 19th century models. Next, this study presents ways in which Weill's Frauentanz displays 20th century techniques such as rhythmic texture, non-diatonic melodies, and semi-tonal instability. The Frauentanz vocal line is examined as instrumental in nature, adding textural importance to the interplay of the text with instrumental melodic motives. Kurt Weill's interest in vocal music and modernism directly influenced his legendary theatrical works. His traditional German musical training, rooted in counterpoint, combined with his melodic and modern ingenuity form the basis of the "Weill Style" of theatre music, for which he earned international recognition.

ABSTRACT This research report examines the opera Der Silbersee: Ein Wintermärchen (The Silver Lake: a Winter’s Tale), 1932, by Kurt Weill and Georg Kaiser, as an example of what Weill defined as ‘new opera’, in his essay ‘Der Neue Oper’.1 It will discuss reasons for the work’s rarity in its relative neglect as well as its significance as an example of what Kim Kowalke has called a synthesis of Weill’s ‘mature style’. Thus it will also be demonstrated that the work, even though rarely performed and often overlooked, is an important bridge between the works of Weill’s ‘German period’ and his later works in the United States. It will be established that the work is of musicological significance as well as of interest and relevance to present-day theatregoers. The research argues that the work, though written in Germany during the 1930s as a form of operatic protest, is worthy of being seen as a timeless and universal piece, deserving of more attention. This investigation will be accomplished through an analysis of Weill’s own writings found in his many essays, translated and collected by Kim Kowalke in his book Kurt Weill in Europe, through an examination of the historical and socio-political perspective of the work, as well as in a musical analysis.

Thèse--Musicologie--Paris, 1990. / Bibliogr. vol. 2, p. 1-40.

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abstract: This study focuses on three songs from stage works of Kurt Weill (1900-1950): “September Song” from Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), “Speak Low” from One Touch of Venus (1943), and “Lost in the Stars” from Lost in the Stars (1949). All from Weill’s time in the United States, these songs are adaptable as solos and have become American standards performed in various arrangements and styles of popular music by many different artists. The first part of this study is a biographical sketch of Weill’s life and music. It is intended to provide context for the three songs by tracing his beginnings as a German composer of stage works with volatile political messages, to his flight to the United States and his emergence as a composer of Broadway successes. The second part is a commentary on the composition of the three selected songs. The lyrics and musical content are examined to show how Weill’s settings convey the dramatic mood and meaning as well as the specific nuances of the words. Description of the context of these songs explains how they were textually and musically intended to advance the plot and the emotional arc of the dramatic characters. The popularity of these songs endures beyond their original shows, and so there is discussion of how other artists have adapted and performed them, and available recordings are cited. Weill’s songs, his little masterpieces, have proven to be truly evocative and so attractive to American audiences that they have undergone myriad adaptations. This study seeks to provide the personal and historical background of Kurt Weill’s music and to demonstrate why these three songs in particular have proven to have such lasting appeal. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Performance 2016

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Sob a perspectiva de um reexame do momento de formação do teatro épico contemporâneo, esta dissertação consiste num estudo sobre o trabalho colaborativo de Bertolt Brecht e Kurt Weill nos anos de 1926 a 1933, com ênfase para o assim chamado teatro de atualidades elaborado pelos artistas. Tomando como linha condutora os três momentos centrais da República de Weimar (a crise de 1919-1923, a estabilização econômica e o craque de 1929) tentamos apreender como lírica, teatro e música confluíram criticamente na criação de um teatro político à altura das questões suscitadas pelo processo histórico de realinhamento capitalista sob o governo de coalizão de esquerda SPD/USPD, bem como de suas complexas implicações na cultura. Para tanto, em diálogo com a crítica literária brasileira e alemã, realizamos uma leitura da obra do jovem Brecht pautada pela questão do reaproveitamento que o dramaturgo fizera da música em seu livro de estreia como lírico, Hauspostille (1927), onde certo veio da cultura urbana anticapitalista dos cabarés da belle époque foi mobilizado, através da influência da lírica e do teatro de Frank Wedekind. Noutro nível, sob a linha condutora do projeto brechtiano de uma ópera culinária, procuramos traçar um apanhado das questões que marcaram a formação da linguagem musical de Kurt Weill, problematizando o desenvolvimento de seu trabalho coletivo com o Novembergruppe, sua abordagem da ópera moderna e da música utilitária e finalmentee seu pensamento sobre as potencialidades estético-políticas do rádio. O trabalho se conclui, enfim, pela análise de três obras da parceria Brecht/Weill: Berliner Requiem (1929), Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) e A ópera dos três vinténs (1928). / Through the perspective of a re-examination of contemporary Epic Theater, this dissertation consists of a study about the collaborative work of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill from 1926 to 1933, centered upon the so called Zeittheater invented by both artists. By following the thread between the three main periods of Weimar Republic (the 1919-1923 political crisis, the stabilization period and the economical crash of 1929) our intention was to understand how Brechts previous lyric poetry, music and theatre enabled the autor to critically incorporate into his political theater matters brought up by the context of capitalistic re-alignment made by the left coalision government of SPD/USPD, as well as the impact of this complex political setting on culture. In order to do so and to maintain a dialoge with both brazillian and german literary criticism, we have sketched a reading of young Brechts work, focused on the appreciation of the influence of Frank Wedekinds lyric poetry and theater where a certain tendence of belle époque anti-capitalistic cabaret culture is registered on Brechts music, mainly through an interpretation of his first poetry book Hauspostille (1927). On another level, we have sketched the central issues that oriented the making of a new musical language by Kurt Weill, especifically the meaning of his collective work with Novembergruppe, his approach on Gebrauchsmusik and modern opera, his essays about aesthetical and political potencialities of radio and how they combined with Brechts project of culinary operas. Lastly this study is concluded by the analysis and interpretation of three different works by Brecht/Weill: Berliner Requiem (1929), Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) and The Threepenny Opera (1928).

Sob a perspectiva de um reexame do momento de formação do teatro épico contemporâneo, esta dissertação consiste num estudo sobre o trabalho colaborativo de Bertolt Brecht e Kurt Weill nos anos de 1926 a 1933, com ênfase para o assim chamado teatro de atualidades elaborado pelos artistas. Tomando como linha condutora os três momentos centrais da República de Weimar (a crise de 1919-1923, a estabilização econômica e o craque de 1929) tentamos apreender como lírica, teatro e música confluíram criticamente na criação de um teatro político à altura das questões suscitadas pelo processo histórico de realinhamento capitalista sob o governo de coalizão de esquerda SPD/USPD, bem como de suas complexas implicações na cultura. Para tanto, em diálogo com a crítica literária brasileira e alemã, realizamos uma leitura da obra do jovem Brecht pautada pela questão do reaproveitamento que o dramaturgo fizera da música em seu livro de estreia como lírico, Hauspostille (1927), onde certo veio da cultura urbana anticapitalista dos cabarés da belle époque foi mobilizado, através da influência da lírica e do teatro de Frank Wedekind. Noutro nível, sob a linha condutora do projeto brechtiano de uma ópera culinária, procuramos traçar um apanhado das questões que marcaram a formação da linguagem musical de Kurt Weill, problematizando o desenvolvimento de seu trabalho coletivo com o Novembergruppe, sua abordagem da ópera moderna e da música utilitária e finalmentee seu pensamento sobre as potencialidades estético-políticas do rádio. O trabalho se conclui, enfim, pela análise de três obras da parceria Brecht/Weill: Berliner Requiem (1929), Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) e A ópera dos três vinténs (1928). / Through the perspective of a re-examination of contemporary Epic Theater, this dissertation consists of a study about the collaborative work of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill from 1926 to 1933, centered upon the so called Zeittheater invented by both artists. By following the thread between the three main periods of Weimar Republic (the 1919-1923 political crisis, the stabilization period and the economical crash of 1929) our intention was to understand how Brechts previous lyric poetry, music and theatre enabled the autor to critically incorporate into his political theater matters brought up by the context of capitalistic re-alignment made by the left coalision government of SPD/USPD, as well as the impact of this complex political setting on culture. In order to do so and to maintain a dialoge with both brazillian and german literary criticism, we have sketched a reading of young Brechts work, focused on the appreciation of the influence of Frank Wedekinds lyric poetry and theater where a certain tendence of belle époque anti-capitalistic cabaret culture is registered on Brechts music, mainly through an interpretation of his first poetry book Hauspostille (1927). On another level, we have sketched the central issues that oriented the making of a new musical language by Kurt Weill, especifically the meaning of his collective work with Novembergruppe, his approach on Gebrauchsmusik and modern opera, his essays about aesthetical and political potencialities of radio and how they combined with Brechts project of culinary operas. Lastly this study is concluded by the analysis and interpretation of three different works by Brecht/Weill: Berliner Requiem (1929), Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) and The Threepenny Opera (1928).

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Cause principale du malaise moderne, l’aliénation désigne l’état de l’être humain qui est pris entre ce qu’il est et ce qu’il devrait être. Ma thèse démontre que la représentation de cette déficience ontologique dans l’art vocal connaît des modalités subjective et objective. Séduit par une oeuvre de la première modalité, l’auditeur en subit l’ensorcellement et sympathise avec le protagoniste aliéné. Se heurtant à la seconde modalité, le spectateur se trouve aux prises avec une oeuvre qui vise à empêcher tout effet d’identification émotif avec le personnage principal. Tout en prenant position par rapport aux traditions herméneutique et critique, je cherche à approfondir la question de l’aliénation dans la musique de la modernité germanique (comprise dans les limites des XIXe et XXe siècles), et ce, sous ses différentes formes. Le Winterreise de Franz Schubert (et Wilhelm Müller) et le ballet chanté, Die sieben Todsünden, de Kurt Weill (et Bertolt Brecht) exemplifient les différentes modalités de l’aliénation, subjective et objective, respectivement. Ma thèse aborde le concept d’aliénation à partir de différentes perpectives : le premier chapitre en retrace le développement dans l’histoire des idées (philosophie, théologie, esthétique, sciences sociales, psychanalyse); les chapitres 2, 3 et 5 étudient l’expression de ses différentes modalités en examinant la genèse et la réception du Winterreise et de Die sieben Todsünden; les chapitres 4 et 6 offrent des analyses approfondies de chaque oeuvre en rapport avec ces modalités. Dans le Winterreise, la présence du double (le joueur de vielle), la narration à la première personne et l’anonymat du narrateur, par ailleurs expressif, se conjuguent au caractère « phénoménologique » de la musique, au sens d’une mimesis de l’espace intérieur, afin d’attirer la sympathie du spectateur. Plusieurs éléments musicaux contribuent à cette impression : figures rhétoriques (tropes de distance, figures de marche, Seufzerfigur, etc.), usage significatif des modes majeur et mineur, subversion sémantique différents genres (valse, Volkslied, opéra, etc.), qualité subjective des ambivalences métriques et formelles, aspect médiatisé des sons qu’entend ou que s’imagine le voyageur, etc. L’effet d’aliénation (Verfremdungseffekt) provoqué par Die sieben Todsünden oeuvre dans un tout autre sens : il amène l’auditeur à adopter une attitude critique face à l’aliénation de la protagoniste « Anna ». Le ton narratif, la perversion des lieux communs (textuels et musicaux), l’aridité de la mélodie, l’ironie stylistique (usage sarcastique du style barbershop, du Choral protestant, du shimmy, du moto perpetuo, de la valse, etc.) et la tonalité élargie participent au ton narquois de l’oeuvre, incitant délibérément à une prise de distance critique. / Alienation, the principal source of the modern malaise, denotes the state of a human being who is caught between what he is and what he ought to be. My dissertation will demonstrate that the depiction of this ontological deficiency in vocal music exists under different modalities, subjective and objective. Beguiled by a work dealing with the topic of alienation within the subjective mode, the listener is made vulnerable to its charm and sympathizes with its alienated protagonist. Colliding with a work of the objective type, the spectator discovers that he is confronted by a piece that seeks to prevent any emotional identification with the characters. Starting from, but not limited to, the perspective of traditional hermeneutics and criticism, my research aims at a deeper understanding of alienation in music during the modern Germanic period (within the limits of the 19th and 20th centuries). Franz Schubert’s (and Wilhelm Müller’s) Winterreise and Kurt Weill’s (and Bertolt Brecht’s) ballet-chanté Die sieben Todsünden exemplify the different modalities of alienation, subjective and objective respectively. I approach the concept of alienation from various angles : the first chapter retraces its development within a history of ideas (philosophy, theology, aesthetics, social sciences, psychoanalysis); chapters 2, 3, and 5 begin to study its subjective and objective articulations by investigating the genesis and reception of Winterreise and Die sieben Todsünden; analytical chapters 4 and 6 offer and an in-depth investigation into these works in relation to their particular modality of alienation. In Winterreise, many elements combine to confer a phenomenological quality to the music (understood as the mimesis of an interior, subjective space) in the hopes that it will stir the audience’s sympathy : note the presence of a double (the hurdy-gurdy player), first-person narration by an anonymous, yet expressive, speaker, and so on. Many musical features support the effect : different topoi (tropes of distance, marching and sighing figures, etc.), the symbolic use of major and minor modes, the subversion of meanings attributed to different genres (waltz, Volkslied, opera, etc.), the subjective quality of metrical and formal dissonances, and the mediated aspect of sounds that the wanderer hears or imagines. The alienation-effect (Verfremdungseffekt) caused by Die sieben Todsünden is altogether contrastive. It encourages its listener to take a critical attitude toward the alienation of Anna, the protagonist. The narrative tone, the distortion of commonplaces (literary and musical), the arid melodies, the ironic style (sarcastic use of barbershop music, Protestant chorals, the shimmy, moto perpetuo, the waltz, etc.), and tonal ambiguity contribute to the sardonic tone of a work that urges critical distance. / Als weitgehend anerkannte Quelle des modernen Unbehagens beschreibt die Entfremdung den Zustand menschlichen Daseins in der Schwebe zwischen dem, was er ist, und dem, was er sein sollte. Meine Dissertation zeigt auf, dass die gesangliche Darstellung eines solchen Zustands ontologischer Defizienz sowohl eine subjektive als auch eine objektive Modalität haben kann. Sobald der Zuschauer der ersten, nämlich der subjektiven, Modalität begegnet, wird er durch das Werk verzaubert und sympathisiert mit dem entfremdeten Protagonisten. Sieht er sich wiederum mit der objektiven Modalität konfrontiert, ist es das Werk selbst, welches jeglichen Effekt einer gefühlsmäßigen Identifizierung mit der Hauptfigur verhindert. Bezug nehmend auf die hermeneutischen und kritischen Traditionen strebe ich nach einer Vertiefung des Entfremdungsbegriffs in der Musik der germanischen Moderne (innerhalb Grenzen des 19. und des 20. Jahrhunderts) in ihren verschiedenen Formen. Franz Schuberts (und Wilhelm Müllers„Winterreise“ sowie das gesungene Ballet „Die sieben Todsünden“ von Kurt Weill (und Bertolt Brecht) veranschaulichen jeweils die subjektive und die objecktive Modalität der Entfremdung. Die vorliegende Dissertation beleuchtet das Konzept der Entfremdung von verschiedenen Seiten: Das erste Kapitel vergegenwärtigt die Entwicklung der Ideengeschichte (Philosophie, Theologie, Ästhetik, Gesellschaftswissenschaften, Psychoanalyse); die Kapitel 2, 3 und 5 befassen sich mit dem Ausdruck ihrer verschiedenen Modalitäten in der Entstehung sowie der Rezeption der Winterreise und der Sieben Todsünden; die Kapitel 4 und 6 bieten vertiefende Analysen jedes einzelnen Werkes im Zusammenhang mit diesen Modalitäten. In der „Winterreise“ vereinigen sich die Präsenz des Doppelgängers (der Leiermann), die Ich Erzählung und die Anonymität des ansonsten sehr ausdrucksvollen Erzählers mit dem „phänomenologischen“ Charakter der Musik, im Sinne einer Mimesis des inneren Raums, um die Sympathie des Zuschauers anzusprechen. Mehrere musikalische Elemente tragen zu diesem Eindruck bei: Rhetorische Figuren (z.B. Distanz- und Wandermotive, Seufzerfiguren usw.), der signifikante Gebrauch von Dur und Moll, die semantische Subversion der verschiedenen Genres (Walzer, Volkslied, Oper, usw.), die subjektive Beschaffenheit metrischer und formaler Ambivalenzen, der mediatisierte Aspekt der Töne, die der Reisende hört oder sich vorstellt, usw. Der Verfremdungseffekt, der durch „Die sieben Todsünden“ hervorgerufen wird, ist ein gänzlich anderer: Er drängt den Zuhörer dazu, eine kritische Stellung in Hinblick auf die Entfremdung der Protagonistin „Anna“ zu beziehen. Der narrative Ton, die Pervertierung der textuellen und musikalischen Gemeinplätze, die stilistische Ironie (der sarkastische Gebrauch des barbershop-Stils, des protestantischen Chors, des shimmy, des moto perpetuo, des Walzers, usw.) und die allgemeine tonale sowie stilistische Zweideutigkeit tragen zum spöttischen Ton des Werks bei und führen so zur gewünschten kritischen Distanz.

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