University of Cincinnati

! "# $ % & % ' % !' !" #$"%&' %% (! )!% ")*) + ' "# ' '% $$(' ,"-,).% Cabaret Songs by Classical Composers During the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Satie, Schoenberg, Weill, and Britten A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSIC ARTS in the Division of Performance Studies of the College-Conservatory of Music May 31, 2010 by Colleen Brooks Cincinnati, OH M.M., Indiana University, 2005 B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002 Committee Chair: Jeongwon Joe, Ph.D. ii ABSTRACT One of the most viable trends in the compositional practice of the twentieth and twenty- first centuries is the blurring and breaking of boundaries between classical and popular styles. Toward the end of the nineteenth century this blurring of boundaries resulted in the genre of cabaret. My document demonstrates that classical composers of various nationalities and compositional styles experimented in this new genre of cabaret. It traces the history of the cabaret movement from its origins through World War II and provides a detailed history of the cabaret songs of four classical composers: Erik Satie’s cabaret songs for Vincent Hyspa, Arnold Schoenberg’s Brettl-Lieder, Kurt Weill’s cabaret songs from his Paris years, and Benjamin Britten’s Cabaret Songs. Through musical analysis this document shows that their cabaret songs reflect the influence of popular idioms as well as each composer’s own classical style. iii © 2010 by COLLEEN BROOKS All right reserved. iv For Dad, Mom, and Larry In addition, I would like to specially thank the following: Dr. Jeongwon Joe, Professor Kenneth Griffiths, and Dr. bruce d. mcclung Shelly Cash, Margaret Ozaki-Graves, Christina Gill, Barbara Honn, k. Jenny Jones, Amy Olipra, Allen Perriello, and Donald Wilson Belmont Music Publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, Éditions Salabert, European American Music Corporation, and Faber Music Ltd v TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction . 1 II. Chapter 1: Satie’s Cabaret Songs: Satie, Hyspa, and Beginnings in Cabaret . 7 Background: a brief history of the Parisian origins of cabaret . 8 History of Satie’s cabaret songs for Vincent Hyspa . 9 Musical analysis of Satie’s cabaret songs for Hyspa . 13 III. Chapter 2: Schoenberg’s Brettl-Lieder: An Elusive Excursion into Popular Song . 38 Background: a brief history of cabaret’s rise in turn-of-the-century Berlin . 38 History of Schoenberg’s Brettl-Lieder . 39 Musical analysis of Brettl-Lieder . 41 IV. Chapter 3: Weill’s Cabaret Songs: Berlin, No. Paris, Yes! . 56 Background: a brief history of the peak of the cabaret movement in 1920s Berlin . 57 History of Weill’s cabaret songs for Lys Gauty and his two songs for Marlene Dietrich . 58 Musical Analysis of Weill’s songs for Gauty and Dietrich . 61 V. Chapter 4: Britten’s Cabaret Songs: A “Light” Auden Endeavor . 84 History of Britten’s Cabaret Songs . 84 Background: a brief history of cabaret in England . 88 Musical analysis of Cabaret Songs . 90 VI. Conclusion . 122 VII. Bibliography . 126 1 INTRODUCTION Throughout the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first, the boundaries between classical and popular music have been blurred and broken by certain composers. William Bolcom’s opera A View from the Bridge reflects a strong jazz influence in Catherine’s aria, “But You Do not Know this Man,” and even asks that the lead tenor, Rodolpho, sing the popular song “Paper Doll.” Philip Glass’s Low Symphony (1992) is based on themes from David Bowie’s 1977 rock album Low. A more recent, and perhaps more radical, example is Jerry Springer: The Opera, written by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee and based on the television show The Jerry Springer Show, which premiered in London in 2003. It opens with an episode of the infamous talk show portrayed in a mixture of music theater and operatic singing styles, and has stirred a lot of controversy and protest because of its sacrilegious treatment of Judeo-Christian themes and its radical visual components, such as tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members. In works of certain composers this blending of musical styles has become a consistent characteristic of their musical output. Kurt Weill explains: I have never acknowledged the difference between “serious” music and “light” music. There is only good music and bad music.1 In an interview, composer William Bolcom responds: To answer your question, “What does one mean by the serious music scene,” that is, I assure you, not my own original term; in fact I hate it, as it implies that everyone not in it is not serious . ; it’s almost racist. Your other question: “shouldn’t ‘classical, 2 serious’ composers learn from the ‘opposition’” is one my whole life has addressed. 1 Quoted in bruce d. mcclung, “From Myth to Monograph: Weill Scholarship, Fifty Years After,” Theater 30, no. 3 (2000): 109. 2 William Bolcom, “Something about the Music,” in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, ed. Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs (New York: Da Capo Press, 1998), 482. 2 Contrary to Weill and Bolcom there are classical composers who feel strongly that popular and “serious” music are and should remain separate entities. Virgil Thomson had the following reaction to the mixed style of George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess: It was always certain that [Gershwin] was a gifted composer, a charming composer, an exciting and sympathetic composer. I think, however, that it is clear by now that Gershwin hasn’t learned his business. At least he hasn’t learned the business of being a serious composer, which one has always gathered to be the business he wanted to learn. I . resent Gershwin’s shortcomings. I don’t mind his being a light composer and I don’t mind his trying to be a serious one. But I do mind his falling between two stools.3 Arnold Schoenberg is usually associated with the latter position. Although he respected artists who can identify with popular sentiment, such as Johann Strauss, George Gershwin, Jacques Offenbach, and Johann Nestroy,4 Schoenberg, like Thomson, maintained that . the idea to combine serious writing with popular writing is entirely out of the way. Why should there not be music for the ordinary man, for the mediocre, for the un- understanding, for the uninitiated on the one hand, and on the other hand, such music for the few who understand? Is it necessary that a composer who can write for the few, just this same composer must also write for all? Is it not better if there are specialists, one writes for all, and the other writes for the few?5 Yet, while the blurring of classical and popular styles is prevalent in the compositions of several current classical composers, it is by no means a new event in music history. For example, folk songs have influenced classical composers for centuries as evidenced by the song output of Johannes Brahms and Modest Musorgsky. Additionally, references to folk music frequently recur in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, ranging from the strophic, peasant arias of Papageno to the lyrical, Spanish serenade of Don Giovanni, complete with mandolin. Another example of this blurring of popular and classical styles can be found in cabaret songs. In 1881, 3 Quoted in Richard Crawford, “It Ain’t Necessarily Soul: Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as a Symbol,” Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research 8 (1972): 25. 4 Christian Meyer and Therese Muxeneder, eds., Arnold Schönberg: Catalogue raisonné (Los Angeles: Belmont Music Publishers, 2005), 24. 5 Quoted in ibid., 25. 3 with the opening of the Chat Noir (Black Cat) in Paris, a new genre was born, cabaret. While this genre still exists today, the height of the movement lasted from 1881 up until World War II. During this time several classical composers tried their hand at the new genre, and this study will focus on the resulting cabaret works of four such composers: Erik Satie, Arnold Schoenberg, Kurt Weill, and Benjamin Britten. While these four composers are not an exhaustive list of the classical composers who composed in this genre, their cabaret pieces represent the most prominent examples from the height of the cabaret movement, the 1880s through the 1930s. In addition these composers demonstrate diversity in nationality and classical style. For the purpose of this study, cabaret songs are considered songs composed for a well-known cabaret singer, for a particular cabaret theater, or which include “cabaret” in some form in the title of the piece. Also it should be noted that some prolific composers of cabaret songs, such as Friedrich Holländer and Misha Spoliansky, are not addressed in this study because they are not widely regarded as classical composers. It was not until the 1980s that scholarly publications on the cabaret works of classical composers began to appear. Steven Moore Whiting, a musicology professor at the University of Michigan, is a leading scholar of cabaret works, in particular those of Satie. Whiting has written several relevant works on the subject, most notably the biography Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall.6 This biography gives particular attention and detail to Satie’s time in and works for the cabaret, including an entire chapter with a musical discussion of his songs for cabaret singer Vincent Hyspa. Whiting is also involved in the most recent publication of cabaret 6 Steven Moore Whiting, Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). 4 and café-concert songs by Satie entitled Neuf chansons de cabaret et caf’ conc,’ which includes descriptive notes on each song.7 Alan M. Gillmor’s biography Erik Satie provides significant insight into Satie’s early popular endeavors and influences as well as a thorough discography.

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