Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Biography  





2 Works  



2.1  Operas  





2.2  Incidental music  





2.3  Film music  





2.4  Works for choir  





2.5  Songs  





2.6  Other compositions  







3 Awards  





4 References  





5 Further reading and documentary  





6 External links  














Paul Dessau






Català
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
فارسی
Français
Hrvatski
Italiano
עברית
مصرى
Nederlands

Norsk bokmål
Norsk nynorsk
Polski
Português
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
Українська
Tiếng Vit
 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Paul Dessau
Born(1894-12-19)19 December 1894
Died28 June 1979(1979-06-28) (aged 84)
NationalityGerman
EducationKlindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory
Occupations
  • Composer
  • Conductor
  • SpouseRuth Berghaus
    ChildrenMaxim Dessau

    Paul Dessau (19 December 1894 – 28 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.

    Biography[edit]

    Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family.[1] His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau (1821–1881), was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.[2][1] His uncle, Bernhard Dessau [de], was Konzertmeister at the Staatskapelle Berlin;[3] his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas;[2] and his second cousin, Robert Gerson Müller-Hartmann, was a composer and collaborator with Ralph Vaughan Williams.[4]

    From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin.[1] In 1912 he became répétiteur at the Stadttheater Hamburg, the municipal theatre.[5] He studied the work of the conductors Felix Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard [de]. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915 .[2]

    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.[1][2]

    In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the United States,[1] where initially he lived in New York City before moving to Hollywood in 1943.[2] Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.[5]

    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.[6] He taught many master classes, his students including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke [de], Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.[citation needed]

    Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch (1924), with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann (1948), Antje Ruge [de] (1952), and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus (1954), with whom he had a son, Maxim Dessau (born 1954) who became a film director.[7]

    Dessau's grave in Berlin

    Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.[1]

    Works[edit]

    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 librettobyMax 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.[5] The Akademie holds many of his works in its archives.[6]

    Operas[edit]

    All operas by Dessau were premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin.[6]

    Incidental music[edit]

    Film music[edit]

    Works for choir[edit]

    Songs[edit]

    Other compositions[edit]

    Awards[edit]

    References[edit]

    1. ^ a b c d e f g Reinhold, Daniela (4 September 2017). "Paul Dessau". Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit (in German). Hamburg University. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  • ^ a b c d e Hennenberg, Fritz (2001). "Dessau, Paul". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07650. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  • ^ Theodore Baker (1919). "Dessau, Bernhard". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Boston: G. Schirmer. p. 205 – via Internet Archive.
  • ^ Peter Petersen (2008). "Robert Müller-Hartmann". Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit.
  • ^ a b c "Paul Dessau". Schott Music. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  • ^ a b c d e f g h i "Paul Dessau" (in German). Akademie der Künste. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  • ^ Maxim DessauatIMDb
  • ^ Clements, Andrew (12 January 2023). "Dessau: Lanzelot review – gleefully eclectic attack on Soviet totalitarianism". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  • Further reading and documentary[edit]

    External links[edit]

  • Classical music
  • icon Opera

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Dessau&oldid=1222328120"

    Categories: 
    1894 births
    1979 deaths
    German opera composers
    German male opera composers
    German film score composers
    German male film score composers
    20th-century classical composers
    Jewish classical composers
    Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
    Composers from Hamburg
    German military personnel of World War I
    Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit
    Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany
    20th-century German composers
    Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory alumni
    20th-century German male musicians
    East German musicians
    Hidden categories: 
    CS1 German-language sources (de)
    Wikipedia articles incorporating the Cite Grove template
    Wikipedia articles incorporating the Cite Grove template with an id parameter
    Articles with short description
    Short description is different from Wikidata
    Use dmy dates from October 2023
    Articles with hCards
    All articles with unsourced statements
    Articles with unsourced statements from July 2013
    Articles containing German-language text
    Commons category link from Wikidata
    Articles with FAST identifiers
    Articles with ISNI identifiers
    Articles with VIAF identifiers
    Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
    Articles with BNE identifiers
    Articles with BNF identifiers
    Articles with BNFdata identifiers
    Articles with CANTICN identifiers
    Articles with GND identifiers
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with KBR identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with Libris identifiers
    Articles with NKC identifiers
    Articles with NTA identifiers
    Articles with PLWABN identifiers
    Articles with CINII identifiers
    Articles with ADK identifiers
    Articles with BRAHMS artist identifiers
    Articles with LexM identifiers
    Articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
    Articles with BMLO identifiers
    Articles with DTBIO identifiers
    Articles with Trove identifiers
    Articles with RISM identifiers
    Articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
    Articles with SUDOC identifiers
     



    This page was last edited on 5 May 2024, at 10:35 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki