Things Curt, Bass and Vile: Kurt Weill's Degenerate Music for Die Dreigroschenoper as Adorno's Social-Polemic Surrealist Music

Abstract

Theodor Adorno proposed that music fitting his model of Surrealist music would allow radical content to break out of its alienation from society and penetrate the mass market. This thesis illustrates and expands on Adorno's characterisation of Surrealist music through a case study of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's 1928 work, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera). The study begins with the theoretical background and an introduction to the Surrealist art movement. The work is then introduced and contextualised, including a summary of its general musical characteristics, which share aesthetic traits with Surrealism. The entire work is analysed song by song, with reference back to these characteristics. The study focuses on musical Gestus as conceived by Brecht and Weill, backed by musicological analysis. Through the development of Adorno's notion of Surrealist music, it is found that it shares with Surrealism an essential aim of liberating human thought through juxtapositions and defamiliarisation techniques. As well as remaining popular to the present day, Die Dreigroschenoper has had a significant impact on the artistic canon, and its influence is still seen on many contemporary musicians.