Download Chapter 70. Musical Theater in Germany in the 1920s: Berg

Chapter 70
Musical Theater in Germany in the 1920s:
Berg and Weill
Lecture Overview
• Naturalism and expressionism in literature and
opera
• Georg Büchner and Woyzeck
• Alban Berg:
– life and works
– Wozzeck, Act 3, scene 2
• Bertolt Brecht and epic theater
• Kurt Weill:
– life and works
– The Threepenny Opera, Ballad of Mac the Knife
• Review
The Life of Alban Berg (1885–1935)
• 1885 born in Vienna
• 1904 becomes the private student of Arnold
Schoenberg
• 1925 breaks through to recognition as a composer
with the premiere of the opera Wozzeck in
Berlin
• 1935 dies in Vienna from blood poisoning
Principal Compositions by Alban Berg
• Operas:
– Wozzeck
– Lulu (incomplete)
• Orchestra: character pieces, a Chamber Concerto,
and Violin Concerto
• Chamber music: String Quartet, Op. 3; Lyric Suite
for string quartet, Piano Sonata
• Songs: about 100
Main Characters in Alban Berg’s Opera
Wozzeck (1914–1922)
• Wozzeck
– a poor soldier
• Marie
– his common-law wife
• Drum Major
– a crude and brutal figure in Wozzeck’s regiment
• Doctor
– performs medical experiments on Wozzeck
• Captain
– of the regiment
Alban Berg, Wozzeck, 1914–1922,
Act 3, scene 2
Through-composed form
The Life of Kurt Weill (1900–1950)
• 1900 born in Dessau (between Leipzig and Berlin)
• 1918 attends Hochschule für Musik in Berlin,
studying with Engelbert Humperdinck
• 1920-23 studies with Ferruccio Busoni and Philipp
Jarnach in Berlin
• 1928 scores great success with The Threepenny
Opera in Berlin
• 1933 flees from Hitler, first to Paris, later to New
York
• 1936 begins to compose Broadway musicals
• 1950 dies in New York
Principal Compositions by Kurt Weill
• Operas and Shows: about 30 works including
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–
The Threepenny Opera
One Touch of Venus
The Lady in the Dark
Street Scene
• Orchestra: includes symphonies (2), Violin
Concerto
• Songs: many collections
• Chamber music: includes a String Quartet and
Sonata for cello and piano
Main Characters in Kurt Weill’s
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
• Macheath (“Mac the Knife”)
– a highwayman and murderer
• Peachum
– runs a beggar’s supply shop
• Polly Peachum’s daughter
– in love with Mac
• Jenny
– an old flame of Mac
• Sheriff Brown
– bought off by Mac
• Lucy Brown’s daughter
– another old flame of Mac
Kurt Weill, Die Dreigroschenoper (The
Threepenny Opera, 1928, Ballad of Mac the Knife)
Strophic form
Review Key Terms
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naturalism
expressionism
Georg Büchner
Johann Christian Woyzeck
Gebrauchsmusik (“music for use”)
Bertolt Brecht
The Beggar’s Opera
epic theater