Paul Dessau

Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family. His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau (1821–1881), was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue. His uncle, Bernhard Dessau, was Konzertmeister at the Staatskapelle Berlin; his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas; and his second cousin, Robert Gerson Müller-Hartmann, was a composer and collaborator with Ralph Vaughan Williams. From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin. 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. 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 in 1939, he moved further to the United States, where initially he lived in New York City before moving to Hollywood in 1943. 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, Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann. Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch (1924), with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann (1943), Antje Ruge (1952), and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus (1954), with whom he had a son, Maxim Dessau (born 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.

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. In exile in Paris he wrote the oratorio Haggadah shel Pessach after a libretto by Max Brod based on the Haggadah. 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 avant-garde music (e.g. Witold Lutosławski, Alfred Schnittke, Boris Blacher, Hans Werner Henze and Luigi Nono). His compositions were published by Schott Music. The Akademie holds many of his works in its archives.

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, 1969–1973, libretto by Karl Mickel, 16 February 1974 Leonce und Lena, 1976–1979, libretto by Thomas Körner after Georg Büchner's play, 24 November 1979

99% – eine deutsche Heerschau (1938, which became Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches) 1938 Guernica 1938 Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 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

Deutsches Miserere for mixed choir, children's choir, soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, large orchestra, organ and trautonium 1943–1944 Internationale Kriegsfibel for soloists, mixed choir, and instruments 1944–45 Die Erziehung der Hirse, a musical epic for one narrator, one solo voice, a mixed choir, a youth choir, and a large orchestra 1952–1954 Vier Grabschriften. Grabschrift für Gorki for one or several male voices and brass (1947) Grabschrift für Rosa Luxemburg for mixed choir and orchestra Grabschrift für Liebknecht Grabschrift für Lenin 5 Songs for three female voices a cappella: "Die Thälmannkolonne" "Mein Bruder war ein Flieger" "Vom Kind, das sich nicht waschen wollte" "Sieben Rosen hat der Strauch" "Lied von der Bleibe" " Appell der Arbeiterklasse" for alto and tenor solo, narrator, children's and mixed choir and large orchestra, 1960–1961

"Kampflied der schwarzen Strohhüte" 1936 "Freiheit" (also known as "Thälmann-Kolonne") 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

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). Paul Dessau - Let´s Hope For The Best - film documentary (Yellow Table Media/NDR/ARTE, Leipzig 2023)