Paul Dessau

Paul Dessau

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. His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau, was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.
From 1909, Dessau majored in violin, studying with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. In 1912 he became répétiteur at the Stadttheater Hamburg, the municipal theatre. 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 .
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.

In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the United States, 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.
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. 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.

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. The Akademie holds many of his works in its archives

Operas
All operas by Dessau were premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin.

Die Reisen des Glücksgotts (fragment), 1945 (after Bertolt Brecht)
Die Verurteilung des Lukullus, after Brecht's Das Verhör des Lukullus, 1949–1951, world premiere on 17 March 1951
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
Lanzelot, 1967–69, libretto by Heiner Müller and Ginka Tsholakova, 19 December 1969
Einstein (opera), 1969–1973, libretto by Karl Mickel, 16 February 1974
Leonce und Lena (opera), 1976–1979, libretto by Thomas Körner [de] after Georg Büchner's play, 24 November 1979

Incidental music
99%- eine deutsche Heerschau" (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches) 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
Musical director in musical and operetta films together with Richard Tauber (among others The Land of Smiles, Melody of Love). with melodies by Franz Lehár and Bronislaw Kaper
400 cm^3 documentary
Storm over Mont Blanc, The White Ecstasy and S.O.S. Eisberg by Arnold Fanck
White Cargo (by Robert Siodmak), Yoshiwara (by Max Ophüls), The Novel of Werther (by Ophüls)
Crossroads (1938)
Gibraltar (1938)

Songs
"Kampflied der schwarzen Strohhüte" 1936
"Die Thälmann-Kolonne" 1936
"Freiheit" 1936
"Lied einer deutschen Mutter" 1943
"Das deutsche Miserere" 1943
"Horst-Dussel-Lied" 1943
"Wiegenlied für Gesang und Gitarre" 1947
"Aufbaulied der FDJ" 1948
"Zukunftslied" 1949
"Friedenslied" for one solo voice with one accompanying voice (text: Bertolt Brecht after Pablo Neruda) 1951
"Der Augsburger Kreidekreis" A dramatic ballad for music 1952
"Jakobs Söhne ziehen aus, im Ägyptenland Lebensmittel zu holen" for children's choir, soloists and instruments 1953
"Der anachronistische Zug" ballad for song, piano and percussion 1956
"Kleines Lied" for song and piano 1965
"Historie vom verliebten Schwein Malchus" for solo voice 1973
"Spruch für Gesang und Klavier" 1973
"Bei den Hochgestellten" 1975

Other compositions
In memoriam Bertolt Brecht for large orchestra 1956–1957
Bach-Variationen for large orchestra 1963
Symphonic Mozart-Adaptation (after the Quintet, K.614) 1965
Lenin, music for orchestra no. 3 with concluding chorus "Grabschrift für Lenin" 1969
Für Helli, small piece for piano 1971
Bagatelles for viola and piano (1975)
Sonatine for viola and piano (1929)
2 symphonies
7 string quartets and others

Awards
Award of the music publisher Schott 1924
National Prize III. Category 1953
National Prize II. Category 1956
National Prize I. Category 1965
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