A Walk on the Weill Side

I've called Kurt Weill my North Star in this space before, and though I've traveled down many side roads since my first infatuation, roughly 30 years ago, he is still my Orpheus; as I've written before, I consider him the essential composer of the 20th century (among a formidable crowd of possible rivals). As I slowly make way through Foster Hirsch's excellent, straightforward career survey Kurt Weill On Stage, I've been returning to the master's works; I've written about him plenty in this space and probably will again.

Yesterday I happened to remember that I've outright imitated him a few times in my own work. The first was for a scene in film school; the other time was for the late playwright Dennis Miles, whose never-produced play Tivoli Tsadik contained a song which he specifically intended to be Brechtian, and which he asked me to set to music. I couldn't resist. I think it's a pretty good imitation, if I may say so, though it's not much more than that.