Kurt Weill Songs

From a point early in his career, Kurt Weill showed an affinity for the dramatic use of songs as integral parts of his musical theater pieces. Many such songs were published individually at the time of each piece's premiere, but only a handful have remained available in recent years. This anthology makes the collection accessible in its entirety for the first time.

Included here, in two volumes, is each and every song from a Weill theater piece that was published individually during the composer's lifetime. The music is reprinted from the historical sheet music itself, so the user can see in the format and presentation graphic analogies to the many steps in the composer's life journey: Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Hollywood, and so on.The timing of this publication is significant in a number of ways. For one, it appears on the eve of a new century and millennium. That alone is enough to inspire a look back on the noteworthy music produced in the previous hundred years.

But the year 2000 has special meaning in relation to Kurt Weill. It marks the hundredth anniversary of his birth and the fiftieth anniversary of his death.This centennial comes at an especially propitious moment for rediscovery of the composer's work. The steady growth since the 1950s of interest in his life and music has accelerated in recent years. As people discover the remarkable range of Weill's accomplishment, both in the variety and quality of his work, the demand to hear and experience the music increases with each passing year. The celebration in 2000 will see the greatest number yet of Weill performances, of pieces both famous and unfamiliar.

This exposure to the composer's full oeuvre very much like the opportunity provided by this anthologywill encourage a fuller understanding of the composer and his creations and perhaps a greater appreciation of the character and depth of his contribution to music in the extraordinary century now past.