Kurt Weill And Weimar Germany Music Essay

Kurt Weill And Weimar Germany Music Essay Kurt Weill b Dessau, 2 March 1900; d New York, 3 April 1950 was a German composer and an American citizen from 1943. He was among the prominent composers following the devastation of World War I, and a significant figure in the evolution of contemporary forms of musical theatre. His thriving and influential work for Broadway during the 1940s was a development in commoner terms of the exploratory stage works that had made him one of the world-class avant-garde theatre composers of the Weimar Republic. Weills music and the Weimar Republics influence cannot be understood without understanding the political, historical, economic and cultural aspects of the Weimar Republic, and similarly a brief history of his life during the Weimar Republic. Kurt Weill grew up in a devout Jewish family in the quarter in Dessau, Germany, (Sandvorstadt) where his father was a cantor. By age twelve, Kurt Weill had started piano lessons and it was during this time that he attempted writing music. By 1915 Weill was being privately tutored in composition, piano, music theory and conducting; and with this training, in 1918 he enrolled at the Berliner Hochschule fà ¼r Musik at the age of 18, where he studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck, conducting with Rudolf Krasselt and counterpoint with Friedrich E. Koch. Due to hardships in the aftermath of WW1 he stopped his studies and during this time, he composed an orchestral suite in E-flat major, Schilflieder, a cycle of five songs to poems by Nikolaus Lenau and a symphonic poem of Rilkes The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke as well as. From 1921 -1923 Weill returned to Berlin to study with Ferruccio Busoni, and on November 18, 1922, his pantomime for children Die Zaub ernacht (The Magic Night) premiered at the Theater am Kurfà ¼rstendamm; it was the first public concert of any of Weills works in musical theatre. While Weill was studying music a period of political, economic and social turbulence was occurring. Following Germanys defeat in the First World War and the abdication of the Kaiser, a democratic republic was forced on the German people by US president Woodrow Wilson and his fourteen points. The new government had the responsibility of signing the treaty of Versailles and the new government would always be accountable for all the issues that Germany faced, which when the aftermath of the war clear would be many. Backed by the legend of dolchstoss (stab-in-the-back) the German people hated the Weimar government and attributed all their troubles to the republic. Hyper-inflation, reparations, loss of the Rhineland, dependence on foreign loans and pressure from extreme right and left wing political parties were key aspects of the turbulence experience in the Weimar Republic, but above all was the treaty of Versailles. It is this treaty that has multiple historians, Bessel (1990), W.Conze (1954), K.Borchardt (1982), theorising that the Weimar political system was doomed to failure because of its association with the treaty and the knowledge that signing it was a betrayal of the German people and their values. While Weimar Germany was politically and economically unstable, Weimar culture (the aspect that Kurt Weill was directly involved with), was one of the most progressive and vibrant in the world during the years of 1919 to 1933. The republic was considered by the majority of Europe as a place of greater sexual liberty and acceptance. In particular, Berlin, became a thriving centre of many new art movements such as expressionism. Its status in the world of the arts was of the same if not greater importance then New York after 1945. Cultural freedom in Weimar was not widely accepted by all. To the right, the new Weimar culture was repugnant, immoral and self-indulgent and produced and image of Weimar that encouraged new political and social thinking. The abundance of composers and performers that were associated with the communist party, which had become a fashionable aspect of intellectual Europe, violated traditional aspects of German culture, (this would later be restored during the Nazi regime with the introduction of censorship of composers like Kurt Weill). In the post-war Weimar Republic, a more realistic view of art was obtained, which influenced a clearer sense of the artists social/moral abilities. The war had killed aestheticism and the musical world had already been stripped to its foundations, Weimar did not need traditional music. Kurt Weill provides an insight into this view, I have just played to you music by Wagner and his followers. You have seen that this music consists of so many notes that I was unable to play them all. You would have liked now and then to join singing the tune, but this proved impossible. You also notice that the music made you sleepy, and drunk, as alcohol or an intoxicating drug might have done. You do not wish to go to sleep. You wish to hear music that can be understood without explanation. You probably wonder why your parents attend concerts. It is, with them, a mere matter of habit; nowadays there are matters of greater interest to us all; and if music cannot serve the interest of all, its existence is not longer justified. Despite the social freedom, the noticeable representation of Jews in the new artistic movements of Weimar raised this hostility. As an ambitious musician Kurt Weill rapidly became a feature in the energetic artistic scene of 1920s Berlin. In 1922 he joined the Novembergruppe, a group of left-wing Berlin artists that included Hanns Eisler and Stefan Wolpe. They mainly performed the works of modernist composers like Berg, Schoenberg,Hindemith, Stravinsky and Krenek. He had some early successes, but it was his partnership with Brecht that changed Weill into an international sensation. Weimar is truly represented in Die Dreigroschenoper or The Threepenny Opera which debuted on 31 August 1928 at Berlins Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. The 1928 play is an adaptation of the original English Eighteenth-century play, The Beggars Opera written by John Gay. Brechts and Weill had heard of the English play, and thought it was something that could be adapted for the people of Weimar. They found character in its promising political themes so they had The Beggars Opera translated into German for them. With newly discovered Marxist theory in mind, another aspect of Weimars extreme political spectrum, Brecht and Weill then rewrote the play, creating what was to become the the hit of the season. The new German title was an allusion to the meagre amount of wealth with which the working class could use to see theatrical performances. This epic theatre style was performed in the round, evocative surroundings of Shakespeares Globe Theatre with its style also aimed at its working class audience. The name references not only the price of admission, thus the economic status of the Weimar Republic, but is also alludes to the political issues of capitalism national socialism and the working class on which the play itself is based. It was ironic that while Brecht attempted to make a social commentary on the evils of capitalism, the musical score composed by Weill became an immediate success across Germany. Its jazzy features and sharp satire were fuel enough the make it provoke love among the Weimar jazz fans of the day and Weimars obscesion with America. The character Mackie Messe is the anti-protagonist of the play and only one of the countless colourful performances of Brechts original play. However, Weills original score did not include this popular jazz hit until only a few days before opening night. The actor performing Mackie Messe refused to go on unless his character received an appropriate introduction for his character. It was in haste that the lyrics to the introductory song describing Mackies despicable crimes was penned. (theatre and Art, 2010) The Mahagonny opera is most probably to the best-known of Weills works from the Weimar period, its historical affect defines, alongside that of Die Dreigroschenoper, as the most frequently performed works of musical theatre of the Weimar Period. Here Weill alluded to a large amount of found-art, from broadside ballads and parlour melodies to operatic recitative and ensemble-finales. The song forms, for which the work has become rightly renowned, are simply one aspect of the score whose strength lies in the stylistic levels as much on its cautiously selected variety of the emotional and the sarcastic alusions. Weills handling of the band was immediately recognized as definitive for jazz orchestration in art music, and his use of harmonizations came to be a feature not only with his own unique voice but with the Weimar jazz age as a whole. Weill had become the most recognised theatre composer to have emerged in the Weimar Republic. This fact, regardless of his Jewish ancestry and leftist political standings, was inevitable that they would become clear targets when the Weimar Republic started to collapse in 1929. The unruly premià ¨re of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in Leipzig in 1930 was the lead up to a determined movement to drive his works from the state-subsidized theatres. By the start of the 1932-1933 season this campaign had largely achieved its ends: despite the critical and public acclaim for his opera Die Bà ¼rgschaft (1930-32), the most ambitious of his pieces for the German stage, the work was shunned by most theatres. The enthusiastic reception given to a concert of his music at the Salle Gaveau in Paris (December 1932) confirmed his feeling that he should do more to promote his works outside Germany. (Kurt Weill, 2010) Like the majority of the Jewish artistic population, Weill continually misapprehended various political developments, believing that Weimar could not get worse and would only get better. Upon learning that he and his wife were officially on the Nazi blacklist, at which stage the Nazis had gained power, and were due to be arrested, so in March 1933 he crossed the border to France, still hoping that his stay in Paris would be temporary. It is clear that Kurt Weill was influenced by the social, economic and political characteristics of the Weimar Republic. Like so many artists, director and composers he was affected by the political and economic instability of the Republic and in response used his music to comment on social change. His major works, particularly Die Dreigroschenoper (the threepenny opera) were popular during Weimar (until the Nazi regime) because they represented and were influence by the society and politics of Weimar Germany.

Cell Membrane/ Electron Transport Chain / Biochemical Pathway :: essays research papers

1. The cell membrane structure is vital to the life of the cell. The cell membrane is shaped as having a phosphate head at the very outer surface, and two fatty acid tails hanging from it. The membrane is double, so at the tip of the fatty acid tails, there are two more fatty acid tails attached to another phosphate head. This is what it looks like:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The reason the cell membrane is shaped like this is mainly to control the water flow in and out of the cell. Water is very important to the cell: if too much water enters the cell, the cell will explode, and if too much water leaves the cell, the cell will shrivel up and die. This is how the cell membrane controls water flow: the phosphate heads are polar, and slightly attract water. However, the fatty acid tails in between are non polar, and repel water, so the fatty acid tails prevent too much water from entering or leaving the cell. With this tough membrane, there has to be a way for things to enter the cell. This is where the channel proteins come in. They act as gateways to the cell. There are many ways to enter the cell. Some ways require energy, while others don’t. The ways that require energy are put into a category called active transport, while the ways that don’t require energy are put into a category called passive transport. An example of active transport i s the proton pump. The proton pump is an integral part of chemiosmosis, and it pumps protons from an area of low concentration to an area of high concentration. This requires energy since things like to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. An example of passive transport is facilitated diffusion. This is very easy since the particle is moving from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration and through a channel protein made exactly for its size and shape. 2. These membranes are very important to the electron transport chain. This is because they house the membrane proteins that make up the electron transport chain. The two electron transport chains are similar in that they both make ATP by chemiosmosis, and they are different in the fact that they pump protons in different directions: the electron transport chain in the thylakoid layer pumps protons in the cell (from an area of low concentration to an area of high concentration) then the protons are forced out through the ATP synthetase channel.

3m’s Conundrum of Efficiency and Creativity

Introduction 3M is an innovative and creative company that flourished since 1930 with the invention of masking tape and again in the 1950’s with Scotchgard the fabric protector. Then during a glue that was invented that was considered a failure in the 1970’s someone came up with the idea of taking that glue solution and using it on the back of paper to hold the paper to anything. So the invention of the post-it came out and the business really took off. in the 2000 the newly appointed CEO James McNerney implemented the Six Sigma management style.He did this because he felt the company was stale and not growing as much as he felt. This new management style is â€Å"designed to identify problems in work processes, and then use rigorous measurement to reduce variation, eliminate defects, and increase efficiency† (Nelson and Quick, 2011-363). The very things that some believe got 3M were they were, McNerney wanted to streamline the company and eliminate the wastefuln ess. Initially his idea caused a growth of twenty-two percent annually but not for long.McNerney was committed to Six Sigma and imbedded it deeply into 3M until his departure in 2005. Some experts believe that McNerney, by implementing the Six Sigma program into the company stifled the creativity and did not allow for failure or trial and error. This seemed to many a contradiction because the post-it, that brought 3M to forefront, was in fact a glue that originally did not work but because of the latitude afforded in creativity it allowed the engineers to experiment with it for something else. Issue Addressed Whether or not Six Sigma is the way to go for 3M?With the 15 percent rule of the Richard McKnight established in the earlier days of the company, creativity and innovation was in abundance. When James NcNerney took over as the CEO, he brought Six Sigma to the company. Six Sigma is the â€Å"measure of quality that strives for near perfection† (Nelson and Quick, 2011-364) Sixty percent of all corporate Six Sigma programs fail to produce desired outcomes and results. Creativity worked in creating masking tape, Scotchgard fabric protector, and Post-it Notes. Six Sigma has not produced such large scale products for 3M.Answering the Questions 1. Relative advantage of Six Sigma oTime efficient & Cost effective – eliminate the extra ideas and create the â€Å"right idea the first time† oCustomer loyalty oReduction of incidents oLower costs for providing goods and services -Relative disadvantage Six Sigma oCreativity and innovation decreases due to the lack of opportunity to come up with ideas. oComplicated process to learn and keep going oRisk of failure / fear of the unknown 2. Using Six Sigma 3M’s programmed decisions are well thought out and researched.On the other hand, their non-programmed decisions could be better because they lack the ingenuity and inputs of employees that drive new ideas. So I have to believe that because of t he rigidness of the management style does not allow for the employees to create new products and bring forth the new ideas. 3. While I am all for putting processes in place and improving effectiveness and eliminating waist, I have never been a fan of the Six Sigma process. I feel the Six Sigma, just as the expert believe, takes away the creative processes and does not allow enough flexibility for research and development. Society and business are always changing. Consumers develop needs for new products and preferences for new styles. Businesses look for new technologies that give them the competitive edge (Pace – 95). † I have to believe that research and development are the keys to staying power and any company can come up with an idea and launch a company but true staying power is coming up with new ideas and the Six Sigma is too rigid to allow for that. 4. Intuition and creativity should play the biggest role in 3M. However, with Six Sigma these two characteristics are very limited. M does not get tons of new ideas from all over in the company. 5. Preference to work would be with a company where decision making leaves room for risk and failure in search of innovation. Collaboration of multiple ideas is what created a lot of successful companies and products like Apple and Twitter. Conclusions I believe if 3M wants to grow as a company that it needs to go back to what made 3M the well known company that it is today; the leading edge technologies that were invented during the free time that was allotted for experimentation.Allow the people and engineers do the thinking and provide the latitude to experiment and give those people the opportunity to create the next big product to grow the firm and take it to the future. I feel that 3M is just in survival mode and has not really come out with anything big since the implementation of the Six Sigma program. You cannot hire great ideas or innovation, but you can hire people who have those characterist ics and provide them the tools to do just that. Six Sigma has proven to make 3M profitable in the beginning but for the long run it has hurt 3M. M has not proven to make a substantial difference from the creativity and innovative ideas and processes from before Six Sigma’s time. ? References http://solutions. 3m. com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-company/Information/Resources/History/ http://www. isixsigma. com/new-to-six-sigma/getting-started/what-six-sigma/ Nelson, D. & Campbell-Quick, J. , (2011). Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World and You. (7th ed. ). Canada: South-Western Cengage Learning. Pace, Joe. The Workplace: Today and Tomorrow. The Professional Development Series, Book One.

Imperialism In India Essay - 1889 Words

HIST 360 - Modern Asian History Midterm Examination Section I, Question 1: The imperialism that took place in India between the 1750s and the Second World War is vastly different from the imperialism that took place in Chine during those same time periods. Both events of imperialism greatly changed the formation of these two countries into the countries they are today. Great Britain dominated both India and China throughout the end of the 19th century into the 20th century. The effects of the imperialism on India and China both had positive and negative outcomes. The British imperialism over India led to the British imperialism over China. The reason for British rule over India and China was because they wanted greater access to raw†¦show more content†¦The country of India only got a democracy when the British left (Effects of British Imperialism on India). Another huge downfall of the British’s imperialistic reign in India was the Sepoy uprising. The Sepoy soldiers were originally people of India who supported the Br itish imperialism and rulers. They rebelled after a rising spread of Indian nationalism spread throughout the country and after the spread of rumors that the grease for their guns was animal fat. The Sepoy’s rebellion is sometimes referred to as the first war of independence for India. The British call it a mutiny against pre-existing conditions. This revolt of 1857 led to a re-organization of the Indian army. The results of the Sepoy 1857 revolt may be subdivided as constitutional changes, changes in the army, religious, judicial and diplomatic effects, and social effects. There was a major transfer of power from the British East India trading company to a sovereign power of Britain. The military was originally split into two sections: the king’s forces and company’s troops. Because of this revolt, the two forces were then united and called king’s forces and one-third of it would consist of Europeans. 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