Uploaded March 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
After meeting René Leibowitz in 1936 in Paris, Paul Dessau completed the radical compositional turn to serial technique. The process of converting to this method, always freely employed, is reflected in the songs of 1937 to 1943, from Abbitte -- the second work in the new way of composition -- to Materialist (1943). While the vocal part in the songs of the late '30s is still intent on preserving a melodic line, the intervals in Materialist and Chamber Music XXXII are broken up. The 12-tone structure of Chamber Music XXXII -- written in August 1948 at René Leibowitz's in Paris as the first work after his return from exile -- acts in the context of his uncertain biographical and artistic future consequent on his return from emigration as a further self-assessment of the position he had won as a composer. With the decision to settle in the Soviet part of Germany, the endeavor effectively -- and that meant, initially, party accessibly -- to contribute through art to the building of the land which had to be newly formed after war and fascism moved to the foreground. The Füunf Lieder of 1955 are very personal : the cycle is dedicated to the choreographer and stage director Ruth Berghaus, whom Dessau had married the previous year.
Paul Dessau (19 December 1894 Hamburg, Germany - 28 June 1979 in Königs Wusterhausen, Germany) was a German composer and conductor. Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family. His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau, was a cantor, his uncle, Bernhard Dessau, a violinist at the Royal Opera House, Unter den Linden, and his cousin Max Winterfeld became generally known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas.
From 1909 he majored in violin at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. In 1912 he became répétiteur at the City Theatre (Stadttheater) in Hamburg. There he studied the works of the composers Felix von Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915.
After World War I he became conductor at the Intimate Theatre (Kammerspiele), Hamburg, and was répétiteur and later Kapellmeister at the opera house in Cologne under Otto Klemperer between 1919 and 1923. In 1923 he became Kapellmeister in Mainz and from 1925 Principal Kapellmeister at the Städtische Oper Berlin under Bruno Walter.
In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the U.S. where initially he lived in New York before moving to Hollywood. Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.
Starting in 1952 he taught at the Public Drama School (Staatliche Schauspielschule) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide where he was appointed to a professorship in 1959. He became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Künste Berlin in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962. He taught many Meisterschüler (pupils in a master class), including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke, Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.
From 1954 he was married to the choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus. Their son Maxim Dessau (b. 1954) studied at the College of Film and Television (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen) in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Maxim Dessau is now a movie director.
Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in the then East German city of Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.
After meeting René Leibowitz in 1936 in Paris, Paul Dessau completed the radical compositional turn to serial technique. The process of converting to this method, always freely employed, is reflected in the songs of 1937 to 1943, from Abbitte -- the second work in the new way of composition -- to Materialist (1943). While the vocal part in the songs of the late '30s is still intent on preserving a melodic line, the intervals in Materialist and Chamber Music XXXII are broken up. The 12-tone structure of Chamber Music XXXII -- written in August 1948 at René Leibowitz's in Paris as the first work after his return from exile -- acts in the context of his uncertain biographical and artistic future consequent on his return from emigration as a further self-assessment of the position he had won as a composer. With the decision to settle in the Soviet part of Germany, the endeavor effectively -- and that meant, initially, party accessibly -- to contribute through art to the building of the land which had to be newly formed after war and fascism moved to the foreground. The Füunf Lieder of 1955 are very personal : the cycle is dedicated to the choreographer and stage director Ruth Berghaus, whom Dessau had married the previous year.
Paul Dessau (19 December 1894 Hamburg, Germany - 28 June 1979 in Königs Wusterhausen, Germany) was a German composer and conductor. Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family. His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau, was a cantor, his uncle, Bernhard Dessau, a violinist at the Royal Opera House, Unter den Linden, and his cousin Max Winterfeld became generally known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas.
From 1909 he majored in violin at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. In 1912 he became répétiteur at the City Theatre (Stadttheater) in Hamburg. There he studied the works of the composers Felix von Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915.
After World War I he became conductor at the Intimate Theatre (Kammerspiele), Hamburg, and was répétiteur and later Kapellmeister at the opera house in Cologne under Otto Klemperer between 1919 and 1923. In 1923 he became Kapellmeister in Mainz and from 1925 Principal Kapellmeister at the Städtische Oper Berlin under Bruno Walter.
In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the U.S. where initially he lived in New York before moving to Hollywood. Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.
Starting in 1952 he taught at the Public Drama School (Staatliche Schauspielschule) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide where he was appointed to a professorship in 1959. He became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Künste Berlin in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962. He taught many Meisterschüler (pupils in a master class), including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke, Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.
From 1954 he was married to the choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus. Their son Maxim Dessau (b. 1954) studied at the College of Film and Television (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen) in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Maxim Dessau is now a movie director.
Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in the then East German city of Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.
![Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [2/3]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rJ97n5aUMQw/mqdefault.jpg "Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [2/3]
The Sonata for Cello & Piano was composed in 2010 and was dedicated to the composers fiancée. The work is in one movement. This is the second of three parts.")
![Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [1/3]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uhiLnmqsky8/mqdefault.jpg "Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [1/3]
The Sonata for Cello & Piano was composed in 2010 and was dedicated to the composers fiancée. The work is one one movement. This is the first of three parts (video divided due to YouTube upload restrictions at that time).")
