As a composer working within the ideological constraints of socialist realism, Paul Dessau brought together classical models (from Bach, Beethoven, and others) and modernist compositional techniques (from Schoenberg and Webern) in two important works from the 1960s: Bach Variations (1963) and Orchestermusik No. 3, “Lenin” (1969). Within these pieces, Dessau employs a mixture of styles, musical quotations, and both tonal and atonal musical languages. During his exile in France and then the United States during World War II, Dessau formed significant aspects of his compositional style, including a deep interest in the works of Schoenberg and other modernist composers. After the war and his return to the socialist state of East Germany, an ideological tension emerged in the peripheries of cold-war politics regarding German musical heritage. Especially in East Germany, questions of elitism, utility, and a true adherence to the “classics” complicated the adoption of modernist techniques in contemporary composition. Whereas figures like Hans Eisler preferred to keep the modern and the classical separate in composition, Dessau blended them for a variety of musical, political, and aesthetic reasons, making him a unique figure in the dialectic of past and present in post-war German music.

Works: Paul Dessau: Symphonic Mozart Adaptation after the Quintet KV 614 (186-87), In Memoriam Anton Webern (187), Bach Variations (188-89), Orchestermusik No. 3, “Lenin” (190-91).

Sources: Mozart: String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat Major, K.614 (187); Johann Sebastian Bach: The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 (187), “Musette,” BWV Anh. 126, from Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach (189); C. P. E. Bach: Peasant’s Dance (188-89); Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”) (190-91); Paul Dessau: Grabschrift für Lenin (190), Appell der Arbeiterklasse (191).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Molly Covington