Special Collections Finding Aids

Universal Edition-Kurt Weill Archives - Manuscripts

Accession: SC1998.4

Location: M2A 4,7-5,1

Size: 3 feet

Biography: Kurt Weill (1900-1950) is best known as a composer of operas, including the famous Threepenny Opera, a modern treatment of the eighteenth-century Beggar's Opera. Weill studied with Bing, Humperdinck and Busoni and was much influenced by the early twentieth-century theater and social criticism. Upon the victory of the Nazi party in Germany, Weill and his wife fled the country, arriving first in England and ultimately settling in the United States. Weill was a particularly successful assimilator of diverse idioms, including American popular song and jazz.

Provenance: The manuscripts comprising this collection have been placed on deposit with the Sibley Music Library by Universal Edition (Vienna).

Scope and Content: The collection includes many of Weill's most important works for musical theater, including scores for his most famous work, Die Dreigroschenoper. It also includes some chamber and solo works. It constitutes a very important resource for the study of Weill's music, especially textual studies, owing to the fact that several of the works exist in more than one version and with annotations by Weill and major interpreters.

Restrictions: Copyright restrictions apply. Materials are generally available for study for performance and scholarship.

Series: 1

Series Name: Manuscripts

Series Description: The series includes holograph manuscripts of the works of Kurt Weill. The manuscripts are arranged in numerical order according to the Universal Edition inventory number.