NEW PUBLICATIONS ARTICLES Block. Geoffrey. 'The Broadway Canon from Show Boat to West Side Story and the European Operatic Ideal." Journal ofMusicology 11, no. 4 (Fall 1993): 525-544. Brooks,Jeanice R. "Nadia Boulanger and the Salon ofthe Princesse de Polignac." Journal ofthe American Musicological Society 46, no. 3 (Fall 1993): 415-468. Dtimling, Albrecht. "Hearing, Speaking, Singing, Writing: The Meaning of Oral Tradi­ tion for Bert Brecht." In Music and Gennan Literature: Their Relationship Since the Middle Ages, edited by James M. McGiathery, 31~326. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1992. Krabbe, Niels. "Pris Kulden, M0rket Og Fordrervet: Requiem for 20'ernes Berlin." In Musikken Har Ordet: 36 Musikalske Studier, redigeret af Finn Gravesen, 133-142. Copenhagen: Gads Forlag, 1993. Lipman, Samuel. ''Wby Kurt Weill?" In Music and More: Essays, 1975-1991. By Samuel Lipman, 3~49. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992. Margry, Karel. "'Theresienstadt' (1944-1945):The Nazi Propaganda Film Depicting the Concentration Camp as Paradise." Historical Journal ofFilm, Radio and Television 12, no. 2 (1992): 145-162. [A Gennan version appeared in: Kamy, Miroslav, ed. 11ieresienstadt: Jn der "Endlosung der Judenfrage." Prag: Panorama, 1992.) Schebera, Ji.irgen. '"Meine Tage in Dessau sind gezahlt .. .': Kurt Weill in Briefen aus seiner Vaterstadt." Dessauer Ka/ender 37 (1993): 18-24. Taruskin, Richard. 'The Golden Age ofKitsch: The Seductions and Betrayals ofWeimar Opera." The New Republic (21 March 1994): 28-36. BOOKS Green, Paul. A Southern life: Letters ofPaul Green: 1916-1981. Edited by Laurence G. Avery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1994. Murphy, Donna B. and Stephen Moore. Helen Hayes: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. McCready, Sam. Lucille Lortel: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. Spergel, Mark. Reinventing Reality: The Art and Life ofRouben Mamoutian. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1993. Thomson, Peter and Glendry Sacks, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cam­ Steve l?oss bridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994. [Includes "TI1e Zelda Syndrome: Brecht and l h -eal lfle Elisabeth Hauptmann" by John Fuegi; "Brecht and Music: Theory and Practice" by Kim H. Kowalke; "The Threepenny Opera" by Stephen McNeff, and "Learningfora New Society: The Lehrstucke" by Roswitha Mueller.] THESES AND DISSERTATIONS Mtinch, Barbara. "Die 'Gotterdammerung' der Kleinbi.irger: Sozialkritik und Tragik in Bertolt Brechts und Kurt Weills Die sieben Todsunden." Hausarbeit zum Erwerb des Magistergrades an der Philosophischen Fakultatfi.ir Sprach-und Literaturwissenschaft II. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Mi.inchen, 1992. Wyatt, Susan Beth Masters. ''Kurt Weill: A Song Composer in Wartime with Three Recitals of Selected Works of Mozart, Strauss, Bach, Schubert, and Others." D.M.A Dissertation. University of North Texas, 1993. RECORDINGS Die sieben Todsunden. Anja Silja, soprano; The Cleveland Orchestra; Chri,stoph von Dohnaoyi, conductor. The Cleveland Orchestra Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Compact f' ~i!~~ Disc Edition TCO93-75. ~-~... J ltURT W EILL Die sieben Todsunden. Songs. Gisela May, with various artists. Berlin Classics BC 2069- 8QTO.I..T &~rc:icT 2. [CD reissue] DIE• .SI IBEN TODSUNDl!N sO.Gir - Die sieben Todsiinden. Koiner Rundfunkorchester; Lothar Zagrosek, cond. Mahagonny u;;;;;;;;-- Songspiel. Konig-Ensemble: Jan Latham-Konig, cond. Capriccio 60 028-1. Hut• !•II t'I.JlQ~1100,n llnu.11•hoK'UM Die sieben Todsunden. Stravinsky: Pulcinella (complete ballet). Elise Ross, soprano; ~ISELA_M_~ Simon Rattle, cond. EMI Classics 7 64739 2 [CD reissue] ..,....,~[:.=~ I G.tltrw.o I.to Steve Ross at the Algonquin. Stolen Moments SMCD 1939. [Includes ''Here I'll Stay" and RllMAw~Cnunu t>o~-.rn "It Never Was You"] RVll!'n'n'·l:.itto•a. 0.-CllHtOlW~ "Zeitgenossen arrangieren Salonmusik." Salonorchester Colin. EM! CDC 7 49983 2. HtUU-f lt.liGll I HCJNi ROc;wn [Includes arrangement of "Mack the Knife" by Bruno Madema.] 16 Volume 12 Number 1 Kurt Weill Newsletter BooKs ers many facets of Schreker's life that extensive ever published for Schreker. were eitherpr eviously littleknown or mis­ With this book, Hailey has raised understood. His close friendship with Schreker scholarship to an entirely new Schoenberg, for instance. has seldom in level. His biographical account of the the past been emphasized by scholars of composer can well be regarded as defini­ either composer. Schreker's uneasy rela­ tive and will inspire discussions of tionship with some of his pupils in the Schreker's music that will provide a firm 1920s, especially Alois Baba and Ernst base for future research. Krenek, shows the tensions underlying In a way, Marc Weiner's book comple­ two generations of composers and their ments the discussion of cultural context divergent aesthetic perspectives. emphasized by Hailey. Weiner focuses on Hailey also succeeds in placing Schreker the use of music in German literature to within a wider historical context by includ­ evoke social and political issuesof the day. ing consideration of social and cultural His starting point for this examination is topics to complement his narrative. Sev­ the debate fueled by Hans Pfitzner's po­ eral issues in particular come to the fore: lemics against the writings of Fenuccio the marketing of modem music, the im­ Busoni and Bekker. Weiner sees this Franz Schreker, 1878-1934: A pact of technological innovations such as debate primarily in sociopolitical terms, Cultura l Biography. By radio, film, and sound recording on the citing the contrast between Pfitzner's de­ Christopher Hailey. (Cambridge: dissemination of music in the 1920s, and fense of a Germanic hegemony in music Cambridge University Press, 1993). the rise of National Socialism. and the more international outlook of 433 pp. Although Schreker's life is thefocal point Busoni and Bekker. Weiner sounds sev­ of this book, Hailey also provides a valu­ eral themesthatrecurthroughouthisbook: Undertones of Insurrection: able introduction to his music. Each ofthe the difference between an elitist view of Music, Politics, and the Social operas is considered in terms of both the music and a more community-oriented Sphere in the Modern German composer's development and contempo­ approach, and the notion of music as a rary trends. Well-chosen musical ex­ symbol of social position. In succeeding Narrative. By Marc A. Weiner. amples give the reader an excellent grasp chapters, he explores these themes in (Lincoln: University of Nebraska of the distinctive features of each work. works ofThomas Mann (Death in Venice, Press,1993). 313pp. Hailey also devotes considerable space to Reflections ofa Nonpolitical Man, and Doc· the Rewptionsgeschichte ofSchre ker's com­ tor Faustus), Hermann Hesse The reputation of Franz Schreker has positions. Thec1itical responses presented (Steppenwo/J) , FranzWerfel (Verdi:A Novel risen dramatically in recent years. Like here chait a course from the mixed reac­ ofthe Opera) , Hugo von Hofrnannsthal (his many of his contemporaries, such as tions accorded his first mature works libretto for Strauss's Die Fra1, ohne AlexanderZemlinsky, Franz Schmidt, and through the nearly unanimous endorse­ Schatten), and Arthur &hnitzler (RhaP• Kurt Weill, Schreker is now assigned a ment of Der Schatzgriiber to the increas­ sody: a Dream Novel). more prominent position in early twenti­ ingly hostile r eviews - sometimes tinged Weiner's approach is especially con­ eth-century music than he had been in with anti-Semitism-ofthe 1920sand 1930s. vincing when the reference to music in earlier years. The time for a full-length Schreker's correspondence with the these literary works is at its most explicit. biographical study like Christopher influential critic Paul Bekker holds par­ The change undergone by the protagonist Hailey's has clearly come. ticular interest. These letters, quoted ex­ of Steppenwolf, Harry Haller, is a case in As the author points out in his introduc­ tensively by Hailey, are revealing docu­ point Hailer's uncritical acceptance ofthe tion, a study ofSchreke rmu stcastlight not ments of the composer's aesthetic ideals, narrow bourgeois values imparted by his only on the composer but also upon his and they provide insights into his compo­ youthful education gives way to a more times. How could a composer once hailed sitional process. Bekker detected in favorable view of other cultures. This as a musical revolutionary - following the Schreker's music a kinship with earlier transformation is reflected in Hailer's ini­ successful premieres of Der ferne Klang French and Italian operatic traditions char­ tially reverential attitude toward Goethe (1912), Die Gezeiclmeten (1918) and Der acterized by a predominantly lyiical style and Mozart, two icons of high German Schatzgriiber (1920) - become passe in a ofvocal writing. Itwas Schreker's achieve­ classicism, and his later enthusiasm for matter of only a few years? The outline of ment., Bekker wrote, that he was able to jazz, a symbol of the infiltration of Ameri­ Schreker'scareer illuminates and reflects meld this trait with the Germ.an heritageof can culture into Germany during the 1920s. the rapidly changing aesthetic and stylis­ Musikdrama formulated by Wagner. As Similarly, Weiner's discussion ofWerfel's tic trends ofb.is day, from the late roman­ Hailey observes, Bekker's appreciation of novel shows how Verdi's aesthetic repre­ ticism ofthe early twentieth century to the this melodic style can serve as a needed sents a populist view of the artist in society Neue Sachlichkeitofthe Weimar Republic. corrective to the overemphasis on instru­ as opposed to the more elitist one depicted It is only in view of these b·ends that mental and hannonic color that has domi­ in Pfitzner's Palestrina. Schreker's shifting fortunes become un­ nated critical evaluation of Schreker's Anyone interested in the relationship derstandable. Moreover, since his career music throughout this century. between music and its cultural context., took a path from professor at the Vienna The book is physically well-produced. I presently a topic ofgreat interest, will find Music Acauemy to director of the would only criticize the placementofootes this study worth reading.