Editing Kurt Weill (section)

== Musical career ==
=== Early work and compositions ===
Weill's family experienced financial hardship in the aftermath of World War I, and in July 1919, Weill abandoned his studies and returned to Dessau, where he was employed as a [[répétiteur]] at the Friedrich-Theater under the direction of the new [[Kapellmeister]], [[Hans Knappertsbusch]]. During this time, he composed an [[orchestral suite]] in E-flat major, a [[symphonic poem]] on [[Rainer Maria Rilke]]'s ''The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke'', and ''Schilflieder'' ("Reed Songs"), a [[song cycle|cycle]] of five songs to poems by [[Nikolaus Lenau]]. In December 1919, through the help of Humperdinck, Weill was appointed as Kapellmeister at the newly founded Stadttheater in [[Lüdenscheid]], where he directed opera, operetta, and [[singspiel]] for five months. He subsequently composed a [[cello sonata]] and ''[[Ninon de Lenclos]]'', a now lost [[one-act]] operatic adaptation of a 1905 play by [[Ernst Hardt]]. From May to September 1920, Weill spent a few months in [[Leipzig]], where his father had become the director of a Jewish orphanage, residing in the [[Gottschedstrasse (Leipzig)|Gottschedstrasse]]. Before he returned to Berlin, in September 1920, he composed ''Sulamith'', a choral fantasy for soprano, female choir, and orchestra.

=== Studies with Busoni ===
[[File:Berliner Gedenktafel Altonaer Str 22 (Hansa) Kurt Weill.jpg|thumb|[[Berlin memorial plaque]], Berlin-[[Hansaviertel]], Germany]]
Back in Berlin, Weill had an interview with [[Ferruccio Busoni]] in December 1920. After examining some of Weill's compositions, Busoni accepted him as one of five master students in composition at the [[Akademie der Künste|Preussische Akademie der Künste]] in Berlin.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|pp=541–542}}

From January 1921 to December 1923, Weill studied music composition with him and also counterpoint with [[Philipp Jarnach]] in Berlin. During his first year he composed his first [[symphony]], ''Sinfonie in einem Satz'', as well as the lieder ''Die Bekehrte'' ([[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]) and two ''Rilkelieder'' for voice and piano.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|p=542}} Busoni, then approaching the end of his life, was a major influence on Weill. Where Weill's early compositions reflect the post-[[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] [[Romanticism]] and [[Expressionism]] common in German classical music of that era, Busoni was a [[Neoclassicism#Music|Neoclassicist]]. Busoni's influence can be seen especially in Weill's vocal and stage works, which moved steadily away from having the music reflect the characters' emotions to have it function as (often ironic) commentary. This was Weill's own path to some of the same notions of [[Epic theater]] and the ''Verfremdungseffekt'' ([[distancing effect]]) advocated by his future collaborator Brecht.{{sfn|Jarman|1982|pp=98 ''et. seq.}}

To support his family in Leipzig, Weill also worked as a pianist in a Bierkeller tavern. In 1922, Weill joined the [[November Group (German)|November Group]]'s music faction. That year he composed a psalm, a [[divertimento]] for orchestra, and ''Sinfonia Sacra: Fantasia, Passacaglia, and Hymnus for Orchestra''. On November 18, 1922, his children's [[pantomime]] ''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.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|p=542}}

Out of financial need, Weill taught music theory and composition to private students from 1923 to 1925. Among his students were [[Claudio Arrau]], [[Maurice Abravanel]], [[Henry Jolles|Heinz Jolles (later known as Henry Jolles)]],<ref name=Musica>{{cite web|url=http://www.musica-reanimata.de/komponisten.html|title=Musica Reanimata of Berlin, Henry Jolles|website=Musica-reanimata.de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010306061122/http://www.musica-reanimata.de/komponisten.html |access-date=September 28, 2008|archive-date=March 6, 2001 }}</ref> [[Nikos Skalkottas]], and [[Esther Zweig]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Aaron I.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16714846|title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers|date=1987|isbn=0-9617485-2-4|edition=2nd edition, revised and enlarged|location=New York|oclc=16714846}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref> Arrau, Abravanel, and Jolles remained members of Weill's circle of friends thereafter,<ref name=KWF>{{cite journal|last=Lenya|first=Lotte|author-link=Lotte Lenya|author2=George Davis|date=Spring 1997|title=Weill and His Collaborators|journal=Kurt Weill Newsletter|volume=15|issue=1|pages=4–9|publisher=Kurt Weill Foundation for Music|issn=0899-6407|url=http://www.kwf.org/kwf/images/newsletter/kwn151p1-24.pdf|access-date=October 24, 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Musica/>

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]]. 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 [[Amar Quartet|Hindemith-Amar Quartet]]'s rendering of Weill's ''String Quartet'', Op. 8, on June 24, 1923. In December 1923, Weill finished his studies with Busoni.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|pp=542–543}}

=== Success in the 1920s and early 1930s ===
In 1922 he joined the ''Novembergruppe'', a group of [[leftist]] Berlin artists that included [[Hanns Eisler]] and [[Stefan Wolpe]].<ref>[http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/weill-kurt "Music and the Holocaust"], holocaustmusic.ort.org; retrieved August 22, 2011.</ref> In February 1924 the conductor [[Fritz Busch]] introduced him to the dramatist [[Georg Kaiser]], with whom Weill would have a long-lasting creative partnership resulting in several one-act operas. At Kaiser's house in [[Grünheide]], Weill first met the singer and actress [[Lotte Lenya]] in the summer of 1924.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|p=543}} The couple were married twice: in 1926 and again in 1937 (after their divorce in 1933). She 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 for Music|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.{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|pp=208–209}}

[[File:Luisenplatz 3 - pano 01.jpg|thumb|left|After their 1926 marriage, Weill and Lenya lived for a time in Georg Kaiser's apartment at Luisenplatz 3, Berlin-Charlottenburg; Kaiser preferred to live at his lake house.]]
Although he had some success with his first mature non-stage works (such as the String Quartet, Op. 8, and the Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12), which were influenced by [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and [[Igor Stravinsky]], Weill tended more and more towards vocal music and musical theatre. His musical theatre work and his songs were extremely popular in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Weill's music was admired by composers such as [[Alban Berg]], [[Alexander von Zemlinsky]], [[Darius Milhaud]] and Stravinsky, but it was also criticized by others: Schoenberg, who later revised his opinion, and [[Anton Webern]].

His best-known work is ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' (1928), a reworking of [[John Gay]]'s ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', written in collaboration with [[Bertolt Brecht]]. Engel directed the original production of ''The Threepenny Opera'' in 1928. It contains Weill's most famous song, "[[Mack the Knife]]" ("{{Lang|de|Die Moritat von Mackie Messer}}").<ref name=Spartacus /> Textually ''Threepenny Opera''&mdash;like the ''Beggar's Opera'' before it&mdash;is satire and social commentary;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newlinetheatre.com/3pochapter.html|title=Inside ''Threepenny'': Background and Analysis|author=Scott Miller|publisher=[[New Line Theatre]]|access-date=2020-02-17}}</ref> but for Weill, coming from a musical perspective, it was something else as well: "It gives us the opportunity to make opera the subject matter for an evening in the theater",{{sfn|Hinton|2012|p=xiii}} part of what Weill saw as a lifelong process to "reform" opera for the modern stage.{{sfn|Hinton|2012|loc=preface, ''passim'', esp. pp. ix, xiii}} The stage success was filmed by [[G. W. Pabst]] in two language versions: ''[[The Threepenny Opera (1931)|Die 3-Groschen-Oper]]'' and ''L'opéra de quat' sous''. Weill and Brecht tried to stop the film adaptation through a well publicized lawsuit—which Weill won and Brecht lost. 

Weill continued to work with Brecht on the musical ''[[Happy End (musical)|Happy End]]'' (1929), best known for the songs "Surabaya Johnny", "Bilbao Song", and "Sailor's Tango"; the children's opera ''[[Der Jasager]]'' (1930); and the opera ''[[Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny]]'' (1930), best known for "[[Alabama Song]]" (later recorded by [[The Doors]], among many others).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink|first=Pamela|last=Katz|year=2015|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=9780385534925}}</ref> Weill's working association with Brecht, although successful, came to an end over politics in 1930. Though Weill associated with socialism,<ref name=Spartacus>[https://spartacus-educational.com/USAweill.htm Kurt Weill] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205031534/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAweill.htm |date=December 5, 2013 }}. Spartacus-Educational.com (April 3, 1950). Retrieved on August 22, 2011.</ref> after Brecht tried to push their work even further in a left-wing direction, Weill commented, according to his wife Lotte Lenya, that he was unable to "set the ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'' to music."<ref>[http://www.ata-divisions.org/LD/newsletter/2009/2009Source_july3.pdf Profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809000749/http://www.ata-divisions.org/LD/newsletter/2009/2009Source_july3.pdf |date=August 9, 2013 }}, ata-divisions.org; accessed June 6, 2014.</ref>

While in Germany in the early 1930s, Weill also collaborated with the American virtuoso banjoist [[Mike Danzi]] in an early production of his opera ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny''. During a rehearsal, Weill congratulated Danzi for his accurate interpretation of the chords found in his score while noting that most other banjoists had complained that they were not actually written for the banjo at all.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kwf.org/images/newsletter/kwn051p15-24.pdf|title=''The Kurt Weill Newsletter'' - Books "An American Musician in Berlin" by Geoffrey Abbott. The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, New York 1987 p. 19 Biography of Mike Danzi and book review "In 1923 he (Danzi) went to Germany and established himself as Berlin's foremost banjo player throughout the roaring Twenties and into the Thirties....Weill congratulated him (Danzi) with the revealing observation: "this is the first time I have heard the chords played as written: most banjo players have told me that the part was not written for banjo!" Mike Danzi on Google Books|website=Kwf.org|access-date=March 2, 2025}}</ref>

=== Life in Paris and New York ===
Weill fled [[Nazi Germany]] in March 1933.<ref name="Mercado">{{harvnb|Mercado|1989}}</ref> A prominent and popular Jewish composer, Weill was officially denounced for his political views and sympathies,<ref>[https://www.stljewishlight.com/features/arts_culture/life-of-composer-kurt-weill-is-told-in-compelling-love-song/article_e92df04e-a228-11e2-8651-001a4bcf887a.html "Life of composer Kurt Weill is told in compelling ''Love Song''"] by Burton Buxerman, ''[[St. Louis Jewish Light]]'', 10 April 2013</ref> and became a target of the Nazi authorities, who criticized and interfered with performances of his later stage works, such as ''[[Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny]]'' (''Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'', 1930), {{lang|de|[[Die Bürgschaft (opera)|Die Bürgschaft]]}} (1932), and ''[[Der Silbersee]]'' (1933). With no option but to leave Germany, he went first to Paris, where he worked once more with Brecht (after a project with [[Jean Cocteau]] failed) on the ballet ''[[The Seven Deadly Sins (ballet chanté)|The Seven Deadly Sins]]''.

On April 13, 1933, his musical ''The Threepenny Opera'' was given its premiere on Broadway, but closed after 13 performances to mixed reviews.<ref name="NYCcyclopedia" /> In 1934 he completed his Symphony No. 2, his last purely orchestral work, conducted in Amsterdam and New York by [[Bruno Walter]], and also the music for [[Jacques Deval]]'s play ''{{ill|Marie Galante (play)|fr|Marie Galante (pièce de théâtre)|lt=Marie Galante}}''.<ref name="Mercado" /> A production of his operetta ''[[Der Kuhhandel]]'' (''A Kingdom for a Cow'') took him to London in 1935, and later that year he went to the United States in connection with ''[[The Eternal Road (opera)|The Eternal Road]]'',<ref name="nytimesobit" /> a "Biblical Drama" by [[Franz Werfel]] 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.

[[File:Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya at home 1942.jpg|thumb|Weill and Lenya at home in 1942]]
He and Lotte moved to New York City on September 10, 1935, living first at the St. Moritz Hotel before moving to an apartment at 231 East 62nd Street, between Third and Second Avenues.<ref name="NYCcyclopedia"/> They rented an old house with [[Paul Green (playwright)|Paul Green]] during the summer of 1936 near [[Pine Brook Country Club]] in [[Nichols, Connecticut]], the summer home of the [[Group Theatre (New York)|Group Theatre]], while finishing ''[[Johnny Johnson (musical)|Johnny Johnson]]''. Some of the other artists who summered there in 1936 were [[Elia Kazan]], [[Harry Morgan]], [[John Garfield]], [[Lee J. Cobb]], [[Will Geer]], [[Clifford Odets]], [[Howard da Silva]] and [[Irwin Shaw]].<ref>[http://www.pinewoodlake.org/ Pinewood Lake website retrieved on September 10, 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727174723/http://www.pinewoodlake.org/ |date=July 27, 2011 }}. Pinewoodlake.org (May 20, 2009). Retrieved on August 22, 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Images of America – Trumbull|author=[[Trumbull, Connecticut|Trumbull]] Historical Society|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=1997|page=123|isbn=9780752409016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Wendy|title=Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America, 1931–1940|page=264}}{{full citation needed|date=February 2022|reason=Year? 1990, 1992, or 2013? Edition?}}</ref>

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. His American output 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 theatre|musical]]. In 1939 he wrote the music for ''Railroads on Parade,'' a musical spectacular put on at the [[1939 World's Fair]] in New York to celebrate the American railroad industry (book by Edward Hungerford). Unique among Broadway composers of the time, Weill insisted on writing his own orchestrations (with some very few exceptions, such as the dance music in ''Street Scene'').<ref>"The Boys That Make the Noise", Music section, ''[[Time (magazine)]]'', July 5, 1943.</ref> He worked with writers such as [[Maxwell Anderson]] and [[Ira Gershwin]], and wrote a film score for [[Fritz Lang]] (''You and Me'', 1938). Weill himself strove to find a new way of creating an American opera that would be both commercially and artistically successful. The most interesting attempt in this direction is ''[[Street Scene (opera)|Street Scene]]'', based on a play by [[Elmer Rice]], with lyrics by [[Langston Hughes]]. For his work on ''Street Scene'' Weill was awarded the inaugural [[Tony Award]] for [[Tony Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score]].<ref>[http://www.broadwayworld.com/tonyawardscategoryinfo.cfm?catname=Score Tony Award for Best Original Score]. Broadwayworld.com. Retrieved on August 22, 2011.</ref>

In the 1940s Weill lived in [[downstate New York]] near the [[New Jersey]] 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, 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]]. He and Maxwell Anderson also joined the volunteer civil service by working as air raid wardens on [[High Tor State Park|High Tor Mountain]] between their homes in [[New City, New York]] and [[Haverstraw (village), New York|Haverstraw, New York]] in [[Rockland County, New York|Rockland County]]. Weill became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States on August 27, 1943.<ref name="nytimesobit" />

Weill had ideals of writing music that served a socially useful purpose. In the US, he wrote ''[[Down in the Valley (opera)|Down in the Valley]]'', an opera including the [[Down in the Valley (folk song)|song of the same name]] and other American folk songs. He also wrote a number of songs in support of the American war effort, including the satirical "Schickelgruber" (with lyrics by [[Howard Dietz]]), "Buddy on the Nightshift" (with [[Oscar Hammerstein II|Oscar Hammerstein]]) and – with Brecht again as in his earlier career – the "Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife" ("Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?"). Intended for broadcast to Germany, the song chronicled the progress of the Nazi war machine through the gifts sent to the proud wife at home by her man at the front: furs from Oslo, a silk dress from Paris etc., until finally, from Russia, she receives her widow's veil.<ref name="cjschuler.net" />

Apart from "[[Mack the Knife]]" and "[[Pirate Jenny]]" from ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'', his most famous songs include "[[Alabama Song]]" (from ''Mahagonny''), "Surabaya Johnny" (from ''Happy End''), "[[Speak Low]]" (from ''[[One Touch of Venus]]''), "Lost in the Stars" (from [[Lost in the Stars|the musical of that name]]), "[[My Ship]]" (from ''[[Lady in the Dark]]''), and "[[September Song]]" (from ''[[Knickerbocker Holiday]]'').